The Rise Of World Three
by UpbeatButNegative
Summary: The year is 200X. All of the world's machines and appliances are connected via the Internet. Some say that it's like living in a video game! However, with this convenience comes a dark side: exposure to NetCrime. Join fifth grader Lan Hikari and NetNavi Megaman.EXE, as they take the fight to a suspicious group called World Three and find out what they're really after.
1. Prologue

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

**-Prologue: Children Of Hope-**

**The Year 199X**

The streets were quiet. The night was peaceful. At least outside Beach Street Hospital it was.

Yuichiro Hikari, a SciLab scientist, gripped the hand of his wife, Haruka Hikari, and lent her his support in the struggle called childbirth. At first, Haruka moaned in pain, but the pain grew too much to bear and the moans grew louder. Eventually, the soon to be child deliverer couldn't help but scream in agony. The blank atmosphere of a hospital turned into an intense scene.

"You can do it, honey! Just a little longer!" Yuichiro assured his wife, but his words were drowned by the screams of pain.

As Haruka pushed harder and harder under the doctor's orders, the pain grew stronger and stronger. How long did it have to go on? Why did it have to hurt horribly? When would it all be over?

Somehow, though, it was all over. Haruka made it through. After all the pain and torture, what appeared as two infant boys finally arrived into the human world. As the twin sons wailed in the warmth of their new blankets, the witnesses to the childbirth couldn't help but feel overjoyed.

"They're... beautiful..." Haruka cried happily, tears flowing down her eyes. What should we call them, Yuichiro?"

He had names for his children for a long time. In fact, he had ideas before he was even married!

"Let's name them Hub and Lan Hikari," Yuichiro smiled warmly.

After showering every single doctor and nurse in Beach Street Hospital with gratitude, Yuichiro and Haruka left in happiness. With twins Lan and Hub to watch and raise, they were officially a family and nothing could tear the four apart.

Right?

* * *

**Two Months Later...**

Life was nothing but pure bliss. While Yuichiro was off at work in SciLab, Haruka stayed behind at home to look after her recently born sons. The Hikari family lived in a comfortable house in the center of ACDC Town, located within the boundaries of DenTech City.

The white and blue house's lower floor was padded with glossed up wooden planks. The kitchen, one with all the basic essentials and a bit more and where Haruka was warming up the babies' milk, was tucked away neatly in the far left corner of the entrance. Outside the kitchen was the dining table, covered with a red and white checkered cloth. Far behind the tucked in chairs was the living room, with a flat screen TV installed on the wall, a small seating area in front of it and a tall lamp to the side of it.

Sitting in separate baby seats were Hub and Lan, playing with their educational toys. Lan found it amusing to reach over and knock down Hub's number block tower. Hub countered by stretching his arm to destroy Lan's alphabet block tower. The two brothers messed with each other frequently, but laughed off what the other did. Life was good.

Suddenly, breaking the sound of Hub's laughter was a furious cough! Following this were several very throaty coughs. Immediately, Haruka stopped what she was doing and rushed over to Hub.

"Hub! Are you okay!" she demanded to know, only to receive gruff coughs as a response. "Oh no... What do I do? I have to get him to the hospital!"

Lan noticed his mother's very panicky tone and made a little 'Hmm?' sound.

"Nothing's going right at all!" Haruka snarled, taking the babies from the seats.

As she rushed to Beach Street Hospital, Hub continued to cough roughly. Lan responded to this by reaching his hand over to his brother's and gripped it as tightly as he could, giving him a smile in the process.

The doctors were alerted of the problem and quickly brought the family another room, took Hub and inspected him. Meanwhile, Haruka called Yuichiro to alert him of the dilemma. Right after the call, the scientist rushed over to the hospital and demanded to see the rest of the Hikari family. In no time flat, the assistant led Yuichiro into their room.

"Yuichiro! Thank goodness you're here!" Haruka sobbed, wrapping her arms around him and throwing her face to her husband's shirt.

"Honey, calm down!" he told her. "I'm sure the doctors can do something about this!"

"Uhh..." Lan sounded worriedly from his mother's arms.

"Your brother will be okay, Lan," he spoke to his son softly. "At least, I hope so..."

On of the doctors looked at the heart monitor and was devastated. Hub's heart beat was all over the place! One second, it beat as fast as a cheetah, but the next, it crawled down to a snail's pace.

_Oh no! It can't be... HBD! Urgh... And I can't use the defibrillator on a baby! His body wouldn't be able to take the electrodes!_

Frantically, possibilities popped up in the doctor's head, but they all had fatal flaws. Other ideas simply wouldn't work out! Quick discussions were made with the rest of his team, but none of their ideas would work, either! Rarely were there cases of HBD in Beach Street Hospital and every attempt to cure the one or two victims before have ended in failure.

Unfortunately, for the Hikari family, this would be another one of those cases.

At first, the staff didn't know how to tell them, but they managed to find the correct words. They broke the bad news to the rest of the Hikari family.

The result was Haruka breaking down into to a flood of tears, Yuichiro being filled with despair and rage and Lan reacting to his parents' negative feelings by crying himself.

"No... He can't be..." Haruka murmured. "Why...?"

Suddenly, Yuichiro's eyes were filled with determination.

"I have an idea."

"What...?"

"Yes... Hub will live on."

* * *

Had a good Halloween? Well, as a late treat, here's what I have in store for you.

Hiya. My name is UpbeatButNegative and welcome to my novelization of 'Megaman Battle Network'!

Some of you may recall that I wrote something quite like this before on an old account. However, because I wanted a fresh start after a long time of being gone, I decided to rewrite and reupload it all here.

MMBN is one of those games that I think pales in comparison to most of its sequels. However, that doesn't mean that it's a bad game on its own. After all, the idea was fresh and new to Capcom, so any mistakes with the game are excusable.

The Battle Network series is quite different in gameplay to the other subseries of games, but I still find joy in breaking out the games and busting those viruses.

However, that entire prologue scene didn't happen in any game. It was all made by me! Expect that as a sign of things to come. For the most part, this will be a straight forward story version of the game, but with my own little twists and turns. A staple of my novelizations will be the addition of filler segments, whether tagged onto the ends of chapters of as individual chapters themselves. That way, you guys get something original out of my retellings.

Anyway, thank you for reading this prologue, guys. Stay tuned for the actual beginning of the game!

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	2. Chapter 1

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Before I begin, I would like to say a big thank you to '_Ghost501_' for adding this story to their alerts and '_Stardustwarrior_' for adding this story to their alerts and favorites.

* * *

Reply to _Stardustwarrior_'s review of the Prologue: Hmm... I don't watch any abridged series, so I wouldn't know what would make a good one.

Yes, I think that MMBN still has this charm to it today. I hope I can do the game justice with my novelization. Ha ha, 'legendary' might be a bit of a stretch, though!

Reply to _Ghost501_'s review of the Prologue: Well, the wait is over. Here's the chapter!

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**-Chapter 1: A NetNavi And His NetOp-**

**Ten Years Later, In The Year 200X...**

"Lan! Wake up!"

"Zzz..."

"If you don't get up, you'll be late for school!" the child's mother warned her son.

"Zzz..."

In the opposite corner of the sleeping boy's bed was a drawer. On top of that was an object that became a common household item: a 'Personal Terminal' (PET). Essentially, they were glorified mobile phones, but with a lot more features. 'Net Navigators' (NetNavis) reside in these mobile devices and assist their 'Net Operators' (NetOps) in many ways.

This particular PET flashed and a news bulletin appeared on the screen.

"PET NetNews! 'World Three crime on the rise!' World Three might be starting their plan to control the net!"

"Urgh... Let me sleep..."

"You've got mail from Dad, too!" the NetNavi told him. "Look: 'Sorry I couldn't get off work yesterday. I'll be home soon. Here's a present for you!' There's some battle chip data attached, too!"

The brown haired child yawned. Reluctantly, he got up, complaining that he was having a great dream.

"Just get dressed," the Net Navi ordered him. "Even if you are late, it's no excuse to wearing your PJs in school!"

"Fine, fine, fine..."

It was a time consuming procedure, but eventually, the boy, Lan Hikari, was able to change out of his blue and white striped pajamas and into his usual attire. After he fitted into his white shirt and black shorts with yellow stripes down the sides, he wore his orange vest over his shirt, put on his black socks, and snapped on his blue headband. It had the Hikari family logo on it: a yellow circle which was black on the inside. Inside the circle were two red hexagons meeting each other on their sides. Lan put on his backpack and was almost ready to go.

He put his battle chip sack in one of the side pockets of the backpack. From his drawer, he picked up his PET and greeted his NetNavi good morning, who responded with the same greeting. 's jumpsuit was a darker shade of blue than his helmet, gloves and boots, and had cyan lines down the sides and yellow shoulder pads. The helmet also had cyan lines down the sides, but also had a thick yellow rectangle down the center, a yellow square below it. On Megaman's chest and on where his ears would be lied the Hikari family symbol.

Taking an empty battle chip from the drawer, Lan slotted it in the PET, asking Megaman to download the data to it. An image appeared on the white space on the chip: a silhouette of a warrior with a neon scarlet energy sword for a left arm in front of a red themed background.

"Fighter Sword! Cool!" Lan grinned.

"Wait, Lan," Megaman said. "There's some more data. Do you have another empty chip to download it?"

Lan reached for his drawer again and found one. Again, he slotted it into the PET and Megaman downloaded the data to it. The picture that appeared this time was a silver weight with a face in front of a blue background.

"Eh. Quake's not as strong as Fighter Sword," Lan admitted as he placed his two new chips in his sack. "But it's still pretty cool. Thanks, Dad!"

"Now, we better get to school," Megaman told Lan. "We don't much have time left."

Lan left his blue carpeted room and headed downstairs.

"Morning, Mom!" Lan called out.

"Good morning, Lan!" she responded. "Do you have time to eat? There's some breakfast on the table."

Just then, Lan's stomach growled.

"Hmm... Can't go to school on an empty stomach! I'll chow down!" he said as he sat down on the chair.

"Alright, Lan, but be quick," Megaman sighed, for he feared Lan would be late again. It was a recurring theme in ACDC Elementary, no, all of ACDC Town, for Lan to be late.

After scoffing down his cereal, Lan said bye to his mother, slipped on his shoes (which could convert into roller blades, should the time call for it) and left the house. Outside, he found his childhood friend and neighbor, Maylu Sakurai. The magenta haired girl was also in her usual attire: a pale green shirt under a blue vest, a pink skirt which reached halfway down her thighs, dark knee length socks and dark red shoes. Her hair ornament was pink, with a slice of it being an amber orange.

Megaman pointed out for Lan that Maylu wasn't happy to see her friend up so late again. In her mind, she told herself to leave without Lan more often. She also told herself to actually start doing that at all!

"You're late again, Lan!" she sighed as the two began to walk.

"Hmph. No one asked you to wait for me anyway," Lan mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Why do we have to walk to school together all the time?"

"Silly!" Maylu giggled. "It's because we have so much to talk about!"

"She means SHE's got a lot to talk about, Lan," Megaman told his NetOp. "All you do is listen and never say a word..."

"Quiet, you!" Lan hissed.

"So, Lan. Have you heard of what's been happening with people's ovens?" Maylu asked Lan, ignoring what he and Megaman just said.

"Yeah. They've been spitting fire all of a sudden!" Lan replied.

"I bet it's another one of World Three's viruses!"

"Maybe... Can't people do anything about it, though?"

"I don't know..."

A few minutes of talking later, Lan and Maylu arrived at the open school gates to ACDC Elementary. After heading inside and after a walk up the stairs and across the corridor, the two entered their classroom: Class 5-A. Like the others, this one had a generic layout. It had a generic checkered floor, a generic set of lockers and generically arranged seats, to name a few generic features. What did stand out, however, were a few of the students: Lan's more closer friends, one of them being Maylu, of course.

There was also the rather round and boastful Dex Oyama, whose hairstyle was that of a mohawk. He was in his usual green t-shirt (with a green cross inside a black circle), blue shorts and shoes and gray socks. For the longest time, he held the belief that he was the best Net Battler in the world. Though he showed concern for his friends when needed, that didn't stop him from sharing a rivalry with Lan.

Next was the very rich and intelligent Yai Ayano, a little girl in a red dress with a white stripe down the bottom, white socks, red shoes and blond hair in a ponytail. Being younger than anyone else in fifth grade, she skipped ahead for her intelligence. Her father was the owner of the video game company AyanoTech.

Finally, there was the quiet and calm Tory Froid, wearing his usual maroon shirt under his beige hooded jacket (at the back of it was a blue circle with a cyan star like shape in it), blue shorts and ordinary shoes. He didn't have a particular hairstyle, though his brown hair was closest to that of a bowl haircut. His father, Dr Froid, was an employee at the Waterworks, the company responsible for keeping the water in DenTech City clean. Sometimes, Tory himself would help his father out.

By the blackboard, Dex was standing there, waiting for Lan.

"There you are!" he said once he found him.

"What is it, Dex?" Lan asked him.

"I challenge you to a Net Battle! Your little Megaman vs my Gutsman!"

"Um, I don't think that's a good idea, Dex," Tory told Dex as he heard in on the conversation. "I heard that they've banned Net Battles in school now."

"Well, who cares?" Dex smirked. "We're gonna battle anyway, right, Lan?"

"About that-"

Before Lan could answer, the school bell rang, signalling that class was to begin.

"Aw man!" Dex moaned. Then, he turned to Lan. "But we'll be Net Battling after school, Lan! At the squirrel statue! Be there!"

"Hah! You know it!"

Everyone took their seats and awaited the teacher's arrival. Ms Mari entered the classroom in her teal braced skirt over a lilac shirt, long purple tights and teal boots.

"Good morning, class," the teacher said.

"Good morning, Ms Mari," the class replied together.

"Let's begin our first period: 'Virus Busting'. Who here has read this morning's NetNews?"

"I did!" Tory called, putting his hand up. "It said World Three net crime was rising."

"Very good, Tory!" Ms Mari praised him.

"Of course, you should know, too, Lan," Megaman whispered to him.

Not hearing this, Ms Mari continued, "It's important that we all know how to fight viruses because..."

While she was going on about that, Dex whispered to Lan, "I'd like to see a World Three virus take me and Gutsman on!"

"You always go on about your little Gutsman..." Yai sighed.

"You be quiet!" Dex snapped back.

"Relax!" Lan said. "Why would World Three bother you anyway, Dex?"

Taking it the wrong way, Dex growled, "Why you..."

Unfortunately, Ms Mari caught them, scolding them, "Quiet when I'm speaking!" To everyone else, she said, "Today, we'll be using a common virus called the 'Mettool'. Everyone, jack in your NetNavi to your computer so it can access the net."

"Well, let's do this," Megaman said.

"Okay," Lan replied. "Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"

Stretching the cord from his PET out, he plugged it into the computer, sending Megaman into it, as did the other students with their NetNavis.

Lan was seated in the front left of the classroom. Next to him was Maylu and next to her was Tory. Behind Lan was Dex and next to him was Yai, with everyone else taking up the other seats. As such, the NetNavis stood behind corresponding desks in the 'School Computer Network'.

* * *

**In The School Computer Network...**

Most of the students owned normal NetNavis, which were green and yellow overall. At the front left desk was Megaman. Next to him was Roll, Maylu's pink NetNavi, with two transparent energy ribbons from her helmet that formed a 'C' behind her head and flat, but long and blond, hair, with a green ribbon on it. On her chest and ears were shapes that resembled Maylu's hair ornament. Because Lan and Maylu were best friends, Megaman and Roll were equally as close to each other.

Next to Roll was Tory's NetNavi: Iceman, a dwarf sized figure in a teal hooded snow jacket and brown gloves and boots. At the front of the jacket lies the star like shape that Tory possessed on his jacket. Like Tory, he was usually calm, but at the right times, he could be serious.

Behind Megaman was the hefty Gutsman, a yellow Navi with enlarged hands and feet and quite a rectangular head. His chest, however, was red, and had the same cross as Dex had on his t-shirt. He wasn't not the smartest or the quickest to think, but made up for it in dedication for his friends. Because Dex and Lan were rivals, Gutsman and Megaman shared the same relationship.

Next to Gutsman was Yai's very tall butler like NetNavi, Glyde, a brown and yellow Navi overall with a set of wings on his back. On his chest was a symbol Yai possessed on her backpack: a black circle with two yellow triangles next to each other and a red diamond in between them. At first, he came off as very snooty (taken from his NetOp, Yai), but was able to make friends with Megaman and the others.

"Okay, it looks like everyone's online," Ms Mari noticed. "Now, we'll need a volunteer for these demonstrations." It was hard to pick with everyone holding their hand up, but she chose Lan.

"So, what do I do?" Lan asked his teacher.

"The first demonstration will be on basics," Ms Mari said, taking out her battle chip sack. "Here, I have two Cannon chips I would like you to take out." Lan did as instructed. "The stars you see on them represent their rarity and attack power," she explained.

"Hmm... Cannons are only one star each," Lan noted.

"Yes. That means they're quite common, but they're pretty weak when compared to other chips. However, Mettools are the weakest viruses anyway, so it won't matter. All you have to do is simply slot in your chips to your PET and your NetNavi will download the data. Cannons are basic damage dealing chips, but they can't take the force of one shot, so they disappear upon use. Did you get that, Lan? Are you ready?"

"Yep."

"Okay, release the Mettools," the teacher instructed her Navi.

The female normal Navi held up a cage, which held two Mettools, looking pretty angry and ready to delete. But being in a controlled environment meant that no one had anything to worry about.

"Ready, Megaman?" she asked.

"Ready. Okay, Lan. Send me the chip data!"

"Right! Cannon X2! Battle chips in! Download!"

Megaman's hands turned into two green Cannons. As soon as Megaman stepped up as told to and Ms Mari's Navi released the Mettools, he fired the Cannons at them, immediately deleting them. However, he noticed that the Cannons disappeared and his arms returned to normal.

"Excellent!" the teacher Navi prasied Megaman. "Remember, you don't have to use battle chips to delete viruses. You can use your default weapon you've been given."

To this, Megaman turned his left arm as his trademark Mega Buster, then turned it back into his hand.

"Any questions?" the teacher's Navi asked the class.

"I have one," Iceman said, holding his hand up. "Is there a limit to the amount of chip data we can download at a time?"

"We can only download data from up to five chips at a time. As NetNavis, our bodies can't handle any more chip data than that."

"Got it."

Meanwhile, in the real world, Ms Mari warned Lan that Megaman would be deleted if too much damage is taken, while everyone took notes on what they were learning. Afterwards, the teacher proceeded with the next demonstration: support type chips.

"Not all battle chips are weapons," Ms Mari began to tell the class. "Lan, take out the Area Steal and Wide Sword chips." He did so and showed them to everyone else. "Area Steal allows your Navi to warp closer to or further away from your enemy. The Cyber Sword chip and other variations, like this Wide Sword here, are weapons for close combat. In case you don't want to risk rushing up to the enemy to strike, use this combo. When my Navi releases the Mettools, slot the chips in, Lan."

In the School Computer, Ms Mari's Navi released another two viruses from a cage. Megaman was in the field for battle and awaited orders.

"Area Steal! Wide Sword! Battle chips in! Download!" Lan called out as he slotted the two chips in.

After Megaman got into a fighting position, he suddenly disappeared, leaving the two Mettools confused. The NetNavis laughed at their confusion. The Mettools didn't know that Megaman then appeared right behind them and that he had a Wide Sword for a right hand. A swing with the sword and the Mettools were 'brown bread', an idiom Navis knew humans used for 'dead' or deleted'.

* * *

Alright, I think that'll do for now.

I should probably make a mention of what you'll see in this novelization. You will see quite a number of changes, including, but not restricted to, these:

Removals include the removal of the Add feature, the Custom Gauge and the Chip Code system. In short, when you imagine the scenes playing in your head, think of it like an episode of the anime. After all, a open field battle is faster paced than a battle in a 6x3 grid!

Speaking of the anime, I'll be calling the locations, attacks and human characters by their anime names, instead of their game names (e.g. 'Maylu' instead of 'Mayl', 'DenTech City' instead of 'Den City' and 'Area Steal' instead of 'Area Grab'). However, I'll be retaining the game names for everything else. Inconsistent, I know, but you should still get what I mean.

Also, there'll be some little item changes and dialogue changes here and there. It's no fun to stick exactly with what you've got, after all.

Every Sunday, this fic will be updated. I'll try to fit in more updates if I can, but that won't be every time. Besides, I'm juggling two novelizations at once!

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	3. Chapter 2

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Before I begin, I would like to say a big thank you to '_MysteriousClue_' for adding this story to their favorites and '_SonicAmyTailsFan_' for adding this story to their alerts and favorites.

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Reply to _Stardustwarrior_'s review of Chapter 1: Game switch? You mean the sequels? If that's what you're talking about, it might be a while before I decide what to do with the sequels.

That fight will come soon, but this chapter will also contain a fight, albeit a small one.

Reply to _Emeraldpichu_'s review of Chapter 1: Thanks. If this is to your liking, then I hope that you stick around.

* * *

**-Chapter 2: Cooking Up Some Trouble!-**

**After School...**

A boring six or so hours in school later, classes were finally over. However, Lan and Megaman weren't totally free yet.

"So, why are we waiting for Dex again?" Megaman asked. "Wasn't he the one who hosted the challenge?"

"He's got after school cleaning duty today," Lan told his Navi. "So I can't bail on him."

"Hmm, you're right on the not bailing part..."

It took a long time, but eventually, Dex made it out. The two friends began to make their way to the squirrel statue in the park.

"What took you so long?" Lan asked impatiently. "It's just cleaning duty, right?"

"Sorry, Lan! It's just that I was rushing and when I was done, Ms Mari told me to do it again!"

"Sigh... Whatever. Let's do this!"

"Yeah! Gutsman is so gonna beat Megaman this time!"

"I doubt that!"

A few minutes of waking later, Lan and Dex arrived at the park. It had everything anyone could want: playing areas for the kids, chatting areas for the adults, green grass, tall trees and an area for Net Battles. The pink squirrel statue in the middle of the park was known to ACDC residents to be a ground for kids to have Net Battles on. The park in this bright, sunny afternoon would soon turn into a battleground for Lan and Dex, who stepped in front of the squirrel statue.

"Said your prayers, Lan?" Dex taunted him, extending out the cord from his PET. "Jack in, Gutsman! Execute!"

"Hah! You're gonna wish you said yours!" Lan grinned, pulling out his PET's cord. "Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"

* * *

**In The Squirrel Statue...**

The squirrel statue's 'cyber sky' was dark blue with images of squirrels flashing about. At the same time, Megaman and Gutsman's 'cyber battleground' was as green as grass and looked like it, too.

In flashes of blue light, the two NetNavis appeared, looking ready to fight.

"Guts! You think you can stand up to this?" Gutsman taunted Megaman, pounding his chest with his left fist.

"You won't be able to stand up when this battle's over!" Megaman smirked. "Lan, are you ready?"

"As always!" Lan replied.

"Get ready, Gutsman!" Dex told his Navi.

"Guts! Okay, Megaman. I'll let you make the first move!"

"You're asking for it," Megaman warned him, his right arm forming his Mega Buster.

The battle began with Megaman firing at few shots at Gutsman, who took direct hits from them. After getting back up, Gutsman's right fist grew. He rushed at Megaman and stretched his arm out for the punch, only to miss. Gutsman raised his left arm and swung it at Megaman, but before it connected with him, Megaman was sent Area Steal and he warped away. Now behind Gutsman, Megaman charged his Mega Buster and fired a powerful shot at his opponent's back.

"Grr... I'll get you for that, Lan!" Dex vowed. "Guts Hammer! Battle chip in! Download!"

Gutsman stretched his hands upwards, clasped them together and formed a large hammer in place of them. He swung it down and created a violent shockwave which was sent at Megaman, who jumped over it.

"Guts... Hold still!" Gutsman shouted as his Guts Hammer disappeared and his hands returned.

"We've got him now, Megaman!" Lan told Megaman. "Cyber Sword! Battle chip in! Download!"

Megaman's Mega Buster disappeared and in its place was a normal sized sword. After landing on the ground, he leaped at Gutsman, raised his sword and slashed down at him. He heard his opponent fall to the cyber ground. Turning around, he saw that Gutsman was being jacked out.

"GUTSMAN, LOGGING OUT," a computerized voice announced.

* * *

**In The Real World...**

"Grr... I'll get you for this, Lan!" Dex vowed, leaving the park.

"You were awesome, Megaman!" Lan praised Megaman, jacking him out of the statue. "Now let's go home."

Coming home, Lan was greeted by his mom, but saw a a strange man checking out the home control panel next to the TV. His slightly long hair, sideburns and pointed beard were as red as fire, slightly contrasting with his NetSafety uniform. NetSafety, as Lan's mother began to explain, sent this man to their house to check for viruses.

"We think viruses are responsible for the oven accidents," said man told Lan. "We're checking every home's control panel just to be safe."

"Thanks, mister," Lan said to him. "We won't get in your way."

"While we wait for him to finish, let's get on the Net," Megaman suggested.

"Good idea."

Lan walked up the stairs and entered his room. He switched on his computer and took out his battle chip sack in case of viruses, before throwing his backpack next to the drawer.

"Alright. Here we go," Lan said to Megaman when he logged in. "Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"

* * *

**On The Internet...**

Megaman arrived at Lan's homepage, which had a teal cyber ground and a soccer themed cyber sky. He was greeted by some of the Mr Progs (various programs) before stepping on a portal to the Internet.

Megaman laid eyes on a vast network, with a grass green cyber ground and a bright blue cyber sky. There were many paths leading to many different people's homepages (access to them being blocked off by Security Gates, which required the correct password inputted to let a Navi through), most appliances and other areas in the Net. The world wide Net was split into different countries' areas, which were split into different cities' areas, those of which were split into different areas for the different towns. Those who jacked into the Net from ACDC Town, like Lan, would arrive in the 'ACDC Area', a part of the entire 'DenTech Area'.

A few steps into the ACDC Area, Megaman saw Glyde, who looked like he was worrying about something.

"Hey, Glyde!" Megaman called for him. "Something wrong?"

"Ah, good afternoon, Megaman," Glyde greeted his friend formally, though with a worried tone. "Yes, something is very wrong. One of Ms Yai's programs has gotten himself lost!"

"Lost?" Megaman gasped. "That doesn't sound good. The poor guy could be anywhere."

"You're darn right it doesn't sound good!" the sound of Yai's voice cried. In the Net, voices of those speaking in the real world were projected through the Net, so a NetNavi can hear their NetOp. "And he was one of my favorite programs, too!"

Yai began to weep, but Lan tried his best to calm her down.

"Hey, how about we help you look for that program?" Lan suggested.

"You would?" Yai responded, her hopes rising. "Oh, thank you, Lan! Thank you! When you've found it, bring it back to my homepage and tell it to let me know. Glyde, give Megaman here the password."

"Certainly, Ms Yai." Glyde turned to Megaman and told him the password to Yai's homepage. "Thank you in advance, Megaman. I'll check my right and you check your left."

"No problem," Megaman said. With that, the two friends split up.

Throughout the search, viruses were popping up in front of Megaman's way. They served no real purpose, other than to delete anything in their path. They were rather weak viruses, consisting mainly of Mettools and Canodumbs. A few shots with the Mega Buster was able to delete any wave of them.

Continuing the search, Megaman looked in open areas, corners and different Security Gates, but when he came across Tory's homepage's Security Gate, he saw Iceman talking with a Mr Prog.

"Hey, Iceman!" Megaman greeted him.

"Heya, Megaman," Iceman greeted him back, the NetOps following suit. "If you came to ask me to hang out, I can't right now. I agreed with this Mr Prog to Glyde, so he can take it back to Yai's homepage."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Megaman told him. "I agreed to help Glyde look for you and he gave me the password for the homepage. I'll take him back for you."

Just after, Tory's mom called him to have his snack. Tory hated to bail out, but it seemed like Megaman had everything covered, so after he and Iceman bid farewell to their friends, Iceman jacked out.

Just as promised, Megaman took Yai's Mr Prog over to the Security Gate, entered the password and entered Yai's homepage, which had a cyber ground of silver, gold and platinum and a diamond themed cyber sky.

After Lan let Yai know of the Mr Prog's return, Yai thanked him.

"You know, maybe I should start hiring you to help me with some other stuff!" Yai added.

"C'mon, Yai. We're friends," Lan chuckled. "You don't need to 'hire' me."

It was at that moment that Lan's mom called him for his snack.

"Well, I better go and eat," Lan told Yai. "I'll see ya later."

"Goodbye, and thanks again!"

* * *

**At Lan's House...**

After jacking out of the Internet, Lan switched off his computer and headed for the kitchen. However, he heard his mom shriek from there! He rushed to her to see what was wrong, with his battle chip sack ready, and found that the oven was set ablaze!

"Aah! How did that happen!?" Lan yelped.

"I-I don't know!" his mother responded. "I was trying to make hotcakes, but look! And the repairman said that nothing was wrong! What should we do!?"

"Well, either that guy was just a rookie or he just forgot something. Maybe it's a virus or a bug or something!"

"Lan! Jack me into the oven!" Megaman said to Lan from the PET. "I'll deal with it!"

"Are you crazy!?" Lan's mother shrieked. "Not only is that dangerous, Lan, but that PET is VERY expensive! What are you gonna do if you drop it!"

"Trust me, mom," Lan reassured her, walking up to the flaming oven. "I've got this. Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"

* * *

**In The Hikaris' Oven...**

Megaman was jacked into the oven, to see the whole place burning away. Everything, from the cyber sky and cyber ground to the panicking Mr Progs were tinted red because of the pillars of fire.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked a group of three seemingly sweaty Mr Progs.

"Megaman! Yeah, we're fine," one of them answered.

"Did you see what happened?" Megaman asked.

"Well, all we saw was this hot headed Navi pop in and suddenly, this place was on fire," the second Mr Prog responded. "Because of this heat, this oven network is broken up."

"Do you know anything I can do?"

"Well, there's the oven control area..." the third Mr Prog said. "But those fires will get in the way. You'll need Ice Blocks."

"Great. Where are they?"

"Over there, in the thawing section," the first Mr Prog said, pointing to Megaman's left. "But we can't get to it because of those scary viruses over there!"

"Huh?"

Megaman turned in the direction the Mr Prog was pointing at and saw a Mettool, a Canodumb and a Flappy.

"Woah... Lan, you're right," he said to him. "There are viruses! And their data signatures are World Three's!"

"We've got to stop them!" Lan responded.

"Right!"

Megaman's left arm transformed into the Mega Buster and he managed to delete the Mettool and Canodumb, but the Flappy flew away. After it flew high up, it transformed into a silver weight and came crashing down on Megaman. However, the blue Navi dodged it in time, while charging up a Mega Buster shot. He took careful aim and released the shot, deleting the Flappy.

Turning to the Mr Progs, he told them, "You stay here. I'll take care of things from here."

"Alright. Good luck!"

Megaman took off and found more viruses standing in the way. He took care of them without an problem and found a panicking Mr Prog. He realized that he was in the thawing section because of the big ice block on the cyber ground.

"Megaman! Thank goodness you're here!" the Mr Prog spoke up.

"Do you know where the Ice Blocks are?" Megaman asked him.

"I have a few, but I'm too afraid to go out there and use them! Those viruses will attack me!"

"Don't worry about it," Megaman smiled. "I'll take care of things."

"What? You sure?"

"Very."

"Okay then," the Mr Prog said. "Use these to put out the fires on your way to the oven control area and fix the oven."

"Got it," Megaman said as he made his way. "Thanks."

Suddenly, though, fireballs were headed his way and blasted him down to the cyber ground!

"L...La...Lan..."

"Megaman? Megaman! What's wrong! Answer me, Megaman! Megaman!"

* * *

**Virus Log-**

Mettools: heads with a yellow pair of feet, a yellow helmet with a green cross, beady eyes and a pickaxe used to send shockwaves

Canodumbs: green cannons on stands which fire at anything in its path and can rotate itself, but only up to 90° clockwise or counterclockwise

Flappys: gray creatures that can fly and turn into a weight to crush anything below it and are invincible in their weight form

* * *

Well, what can I say? Megaman searches for the cause of the oven being on fire and gets blasted away. Not much else to it, really. Stay tuned next time!

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	4. Chapter 3

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Reply to _Ghost501_'s review of Chapter 2: Hmm... An oversight on my part, perhaps. We'll say that Megaman hit Gutsman's weak points!

Reply to _Stardustwarrior_'s review of Chapter 2: Well, the wait is over. I hope you and all of my other readers enjoy!

* * *

**-Chapter 3: A Heated Battle-**

**In The Real World...**

"L...La...Lan..."

"Megaman? Megaman! What's wrong! Answer me, Megaman! Megaman!"

There was no response from the PET. All Lan could see was a static screen. His mother shrieked in horror at the sight of the fires intensifying.

Suddenly, the PET beeped like a mobile phone, indicating a call. Lan didn't know who it was or why anyone would call him in this kind of situation, but he accepted the call anyway. A small window appeared on screen, along with a familiar face online!

"What?" Lan gasped. "You're that panel repair guy from before!"

"Ha ha ha! That was just a disguise!" the repairman cackled. "I work for World Three, laddie! The name's Mr Match!"

"So all of those oven explosions... They were your doing?"

"Heh! That's right! My Navi, Fireman, and I do pretty good work, eh, laddie?"

"You won't get away with this, Match!" Lan snarled.

"Ha ha! Sorry about that, but there's no escape! You've no choice but to join your Navi!"

After letting out another laugh, Mr Match hung up, leaving the window on Lan's PET to be closed. Lan growled. He needed to do something to put out the fire! Then, he remembered something that was in the house.

"What will we do, Lan?" his mother asked fearfully.

"Don't worry, mom!" Lan told her, heading for his room. "I know something that can put out that fire!"

After he entered his room, he frantically searched everywhere for what he was looking for. From under his bed, he pulled out a tray and took out his water blaster. To Lan's relief, it was full and could shoot a good dose of water at a time. On the way out, he took an empty battle chip, just in case he comes across some data. After rushing back to the kitchen, Lan held his PET up high. Underneath, he locked and loaded. Pulling the trigger, a burst of water was released around the oven. Lan used up all of his ammunition, but luckily, the fires were calmer.

"Oh, thank goodness the fires are better!" his mother sighed in relief.

The fuzzy static on the PET cleared up and Lan could see Megaman again, albeit still on the cyber ground.

"Megaman!" he called to him. "Answer me, Megaman!"

* * *

**In The Hikaris' Oven...**

"Megaman! Answer me, Megaman!"

Megaman could faintly hear the sound of Lan's voice. He struggled to get up.

"You okay, Megaman?" he heard Lan ask him.

"A little hot, but I'm fine!" Megaman said to him. "Thanks, Lan!"

"Now, c'mon! We've gotta fix the oven!"

"Roger!"

With his newly acquired Ice Blocks uploaded to him, Megaman headed out of the thawing section. On the way to the oven control area, he saw pillars of fire. He summoned the power of the Ice Blocks and froze the fires. Then, the ice cracked and shattered, leaving nothing left. There were also waves of viruses out to get Megaman, but he deleted them easily, taking no damage in the process.

Eventually, Megaman made it to the oven control area. The gold area of the oven had a matching dome with a lever on it. However, in front of it was a NetNavi, one of World Three's Navis, to be exact. He had a torch like head with fire burning on top of it and sported a red torso. His boots were gray and tipped with red, while his gloves were a slight gold color and could morph into his trademark cannon, the Fire Arm.

"Huh? Who are you?" he grunted.

"I'm Megaman! So, you're a World Three Navi, aren't you?" Megaman assumed. "Your mischief ends here!"

"Ha! So you're the Navi for this house! You and your kid operator don't stand a chance against Mr Match and me, Fireman!"

"We won't know unless I try! Lan, you ready for battle?"

"Yeah!" Lan grinned.

"Ha ha ha!" someone laughed evilly. It was Mr Match and he was addressing Lan through his PET. "Play with fire and you get burned, laddie! Let's show them what happens when children don't learn their lesson, Fireman!"

"Ha ha ha! I'll burn you, you puny Navi!" Fireman roared as he changed his hands into his Fire Arm.

"Not gonna happen, hothead!" Megaman grinned as he prepared his Mega Buster.

The battle began with streams of flame from the Fire Arm. Megaman jumped over it and blasted away at the fiery Navi with his Mega Buster. He received a Cyber Sword from Lan and slashed at Fireman, who screamed in pain.

"Heh heh. Not bad, kid," Fireman smirked. "But I'm just getting warmed up!"

As Megaman was about to make the second slash, he was hit with the Fire Arm and was sent crashing at the control area's dome. He dodged Fireman's free fist and slashed at him again. Fireman keeled over and growled.

"Grr... That's it!" Mr Match shouted in anger. "It's time to turn up the heat, Fireman! Fire Sword! Battle chip in! Download now!"

"Heh heh heh," Fireman laughed evilly at Megaman. "Trouble's cooking for you now, kid!"

Fireman's Fire Arm cannon disappeared from his arm and in its place was a thick orange blade with fire blazing around it. Fireman swung his blade at Megaman, but he backflipped away. The fire Navi leaped at him in pursuit and swung his blade down at the blue Navi, sending him down to the cyber ground.

"This doesn't look good, Lan," Megaman groaned in pain, his Cyber Sword disintegrating and his normal arm coming back. "If we don't get this guy, I'm toast!"

"But we can't give up now!" Lan responded. "Quake! Battle chip in! Download!"

A ball of glowing energy formed in Megaman's right hand. He grasped it and jumped away from Fireman's Fire Sword, landed behind him and threw it in the air above Fireman.

"What now?" Fireman grunted.

Megaman swung his arm down. The energy ball changed into a silver weight and was about to crash down on Fireman, but he jumped away from it and the Quake slammed down on the ground, then disappeared.

"You think that'll work on me?" Fireman taunted Megaman.

"No, but this will!"

Megaman charged his Mega Buster. He leaped over Fireman as he charged up his Fire Arm and pointed it at Megaman. He released the blast at Fireman's back.

"Hah! That won't work! This is the end for you, laddie!" Mr Match grinned. "Get fired up, Fireman! Fire Tower! Battle chip in! Download now!"

The fire that was lit above Fireman's head instantly grew twice its size. The Fire Arm's flames burst through the gaps and Fireman slammed the cannon down the cyber ground. Two pillars of scorching hot flame shot out of the cyber ground and slid along it to Megaman. Meanwhile, Megaman backed away in horror, but he soon found himself cornered by bumping his back to the dome. The Fire Towers quickly moved along until they came in contact with each other and Megaman, releasing a huge explosion which engulfed the blue Navi.

Lan called for Megaman, but he didn't respond. He lied on the cyber ground in pain. Fireman stepped in front of him, pointing his Fire Arm at him.

"It's been fun, Megaman," Fireman grinned evilly. "But now's the time to burn you."

"Megaman! Don't give up!" Lan commanded him. "Get up! Get up!"

"It's too late, laddie!" Mr Match cackled. "Your puny Megaman will be ash when Fireman's done with him!"

Mustering up just enough strength to carry on, Megaman slowly got up. His eyes locked with Fireman's.

"Megaman! You're alright!" Lan gasped in relief.

"Let it loose, Fireman!"

"Now, Megaman! Area Steal! Battle chip in! Download!"

Fireman released a stream of flames right at Megaman. The smoke from the small explosion that was made cleared up, but Megaman was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, Fireman was hit on the back! He turned around to see Megaman right behind him!

"Grr... I'll roast you!" the fiery Navi yelled.

"Heh. Not before I put out your fire! Ready, Lan?"

"Let's do this!" Lan cheered. "Fighter Sword! Battle chip in! Download!"

Megaman grinned as his right arm was transformed into a long, powerful scarlet blade. It was Fireman's turn to step back in horror. He released flames from his Fire Arm, but they were slashed in half. Taking a leap, Megaman swung the Fighter Sword, which transformed into an extended red stream of energy, and slashed at Fireman one last time.

Fireman roared in extreme pain as he was sent flying to a corner. He turned his head to Megaman, who prepared his Fighter Sword again.

"Grr... You may have won this round," Fireman began. "But this won't be the last time we meet!"

"That's right. And anyway, we finished our mission," Mr Match added. "Yes, this is just the first step in World Three's plan!"

"What are you talking about!?" Lan demanded to know.

"I found the program we need right inside your oven! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Fireman, jack out. We'll meet again, laddie!"

Fireman managed to get up and began to disappear in a blue light.

"FIREMAN, LOGGING OUT."

* * *

**Back In The Real World...**

"Wait!" Lan shouted. But it was too late. Mr Match hung up. "Darn it!"

After Megaman had pushed down on the lever and fixed the oven, he jacked out and returned to the PET.

"Well, World Three's plans may really have begun, but on the bright side, we saved the house!" Megaman said.

"Yes. Thank you, Lan!" Lan's mother said.

"No prob..." Lan said with a straight face.

"Are you worried, Lan?" Megaman asked him. "About World Three?"

"Yeah. There's so much I need to know," Lan frowned as he made his back to his room. "And you almost got deleted there!"

"I know, but it was only the first time we fought them. And they won't control the Net! Not if we can help it!"

"But Megaman, we don't even know where they'll strike next!" Lan sighed.

"C'mon, Lan. We'll wait for them to come," Megaman told him.

"I guess that's the only thing we can do..."

A week has passed since the oven incident and everything seemed as if they were back to normal. However, nothing was what it seemed.

In the middle of one night in ACDC Town, a mysterious man stood in front of the gates to ACDC Elementary. His overly fuzzy hair covered the look in his eyes.

"Yes..." he mumbled to himself. "ACDC Elementary in DenTech City... This is the place! Soon, those rare battle chips he has promised me will be mine!"

* * *

And there you have it. The fight with Fireman novelized, just for you guys and gals!

I suppose I should apologize for the fire related puns that were littered throughout. I just couldn't help myself!

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	5. Chapter 4

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Reply to _Ghost501_'s review of Chapter 3: Thanks!

Reply to _Stardustwarrior_'s review of Chapter 3: Nice to have your support! I'm not sure how far I'll come or how much people will flock over to my work, but I'll do my best for those who enjoy what I write.

* * *

**-Chapter 4: What Not To Study For Your Future-**

**A Week After The Oven Explosions...**

The oven accidents have passed and ACDC Town was greeted with a bright, new day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and-

"AAAAHHH!"

Lan was screaming.

"Man! Why didn't anybody wake me up!"

"I tried to, Lan! You just didn't listen!"

"Urgh... Quiet, Megaman! How much time do I have?"

"You have... Oh no! One minute, Lan!"

"Aah! I better get moving!"

"I'm just putting this out there, Lan. You should get to bed earlier."

"Really, Megaman!? Really!"

Lan rushed through the school gates, ignoring the scoldings some of the teachers passing by gave him. As he entered the building, he took out his PET.

"Man... Looks like I'm late," Lan frowned.

"As always..." Megaman sighed.

"Whatever. Any mail for me?"

"What? At a time like this? Oh, alright... You have two. The first one is from NetNews. It says 'Student net crime on the rise!' The other's from Yai and says 'Are you late again? I called your name for you in homeroom, so you owe me one.' Maybe she wouldn't have had to do that if you went to bed earlier, Lan. That way, you would have gotten up earlier!"

"Must you remind me every few minutes?" Lan groaned. "Whatever. Let's just go."

"Finally..."

Lan walked along the corridors and up the stairs until he came across Class 5-A's back door. Unfortunately, as he peeked through the door, he noticed that everyone was still in homeroom.

"Well, you know what it's time for, Megaman," Lan grinned. "A guy's gotta do it sometime."

"Oh no... You're not gonna..."

"Yep. Sneak time!"

Quietly, Lan stuffed his PET in his backpack. Then, he dropped himself to the floor, closed the door at a snail's pace and crept to his desk. Fortunately for Lan, no one noticed him. Ms Mari was busy scolding a kid who thought it would be funny to shoot spitballs at other classmates. Lan resisted the urge to giggle. In any case, he made it to his seat.

In about a minute, a man in uniform with glasses and fuzzy hair entered the classroom. Ms Mari took notice of him and silenced the class.

"Class, this is Mr Higsby," she introduced the newcomer to them. "He'll my new teaching assistant for the next two weeks."

"Hello, class," Mr Higsby said to the students. "I'm Mr Higsby and I collect rare battle chips. It's my hobby! I'm looking forward to trading with you all! He he he." Afterwards, he snorted.

Meanwhile, Yai whispered to Maylu, "This new guy's kinda... scary..."

"Not really," Tory interjected. "Just sorta... Um..."

"Weird?" Maylu suggested.

"I didn't think teachers had hobbies, too," Dex mused to himself.

"Well, they do say everyone has a hobby," Lan said to him.

Ms Mari ignored all the whispering and giggling and told the class, "Let's make Mr Higsby feel welcome here, alright? That's all for homeroom."

The two teachers left to discuss lesson plans, while all the students mingled with each other until the next bell rang. However, as Lan and the gang were talking, Tory heard something suspicious outside. He didn't want to snoop in on what was going on, but his friends saw in his face that something was wrong.

"What's up, Tory?" Lan asked him. "Did you hear something outside?"

"Well, I thought I did," Tory answered. "Must be my imagination, though..."

A few minutes later, the next bell rang aloud, as scheduled. The teacher that entered the classroom was Mr Higsby himself.

"Um, Mr Higsby? Where's Ms Mari?" Tory asked, raising his hand.

"Huh? Oh, uh... She... uh... She got sick," the teaching assistant stuttered. "And, uh... went to the nurse's office. Yeah, that's it! Anyway, first class will be study hall." Everyone cheered, but Higsby stopped them by adding, "But first, I want you all to do math drills! I'm be checking them later. Now, jack into the blackboard!"

Everyone groaned as they jacked their Navis in, as instructed. As the students were busy on their math drills, the teacher suddenly left the classroom. Tory was the first to notice, for Yai and Maylu were focusing on their math drills, while Lan and Dex struggled with them. His suspicions rose.

But suddenly, an alarm shattered the silence! The word 'ERROR' flashed on the blackboard in green. The class shrieked, screamed and panicked, before they heard an ominous voice speak as a silhouette of a mad scientist appeared over the error message.

"We will now announce the real goal of our plan: to control the net!"

"Lan! This must be a World Three reeducation program!" Megaman said to his NetOp.

"World Three's plan is to start something I like to call 'The EndGame'!" the mysterious voice announced. "We will take control over the entire Net and the only cure for this rotten world is... DELETION!"

Everyone gasped in horror, stuttered in confusion and shook with fear, but the silhouette paid no attention.

"To reach our goals, World Three is hiring new staff members!" he continued. "Starting from now, we will begin a new instruction program! So, children, study well and become good slaves to World Three!"

Everyone continued to panic. Lan rushed for the classroom's front door and pushed it open. But it wouldn't budge!

"Oh no! The door's locked!"

"Everyone stay calm! Gutsman and I will stop this!" Dex declared, stepping up to the blackboard.

"Dex, no!" Lan shouted.

"Lan, I know how you feel, but trust me. I can handle this! Jack in, Gutsman! Execute!"

Everyone gathered round Dex's PET to see how Gutsman did. What they saw was a group of Spookys gang up on the hefty Navi. Gutsman lunged for them and smashed his fists at them, but the Spookys teleported away. After a series of attacks from the viruses, Gutsman could take no longer.

"AAAH!" Dex screamed. "That's it! Jack out, Gutsman, before they get you!"

Gutsman did as told and returned to the PET, as Dex unplugged it.

"Lan, I think I'll leave this to you," he said.

"Well, we won't know if we can do it unless we try, right, Megaman?"

"Yeah!" Megaman responded. "Let's do this, Lan!"

"You got it! Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"

* * *

**In The ACDC Elementary Network...**

The school's different blackboards were connected together to form the 'ACDC Elementary Network'. Megaman arrived at Class 5-A's area to find it looking different than before. He and Lan assumed that World three did this, but they knew that they had to find the programs locking the classrooms' doors first.

Megaman made his way along the pale yellow cyber ground and kept his eye on any viruses that would pop up from the math themed cyber sky. Any that he came across were deleted easily with the Mega Buster. After weaving through the paths that branched out over and under each other, the blue Navi eventually came face to face with a teal set of bars. He saw a set of buttons, which he assumed were used to enter a code.

"ENTER THE CODE TO GO THROUGH," a computerized voice announced. "CODE HINT: THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS IN CLASS 5-A."

"There's twenty!" Lan told Megaman.

"Alright. I'll punch in the code."

Megaman pressed '2', which appeared in front of the bars. After pressing '0', the digit appeared to the right of it. Megaman pressed the 'CONFIRM' button and the bars faded away. After Lan escorted everyone in his class outside the classroom, he continued to operate Megaman, who had come across a Beetank. A Cyber Sword slash was all that was needed to delete the virus.

Megaman continued to make his way through the school network until he arrived at the Library Area, where he came across a Mr Prog, who was badly damaged.

"Hey, are you okay?" Megaman asked him.

"Urgh... I've been badly damaged by World Three, but I'll be fine," the Mr Prog assured him. "After all, I control the very important library book loan data and I'm supposed to be able to handle anything, right?"

"You shouldn't push yourself too hard. Don't worry. I'll take care of things."

"You will? But you'll need a code to get through here. It's the number of volumes on 'The History of the World'."

"Thanks. Lan, could you check for me?"

"I'm already on it!" Lan said as he made his way to the library.

After checking and returning, Lan told Megaman that there were 30 volumes. Megaman punched in the code and he was allowed through. As he about to take a step, the Mr Prog from earlier stopped him. He was told to remember the number 'seven'. At first, it confused Megaman, but he promised to keep it in mind. After continuing along a straight path, he came across another set of bars. He knew he needed to punch in the correct code, but this time, there was no hint given.

"Hmm... Hey, Lan. Remember what that Mr Prog told us to remember?" Megaman asked him.

"Seven... Do you think this could be the code for this door?"

"I'll give it a try."

To the Navi's surprise, the way was open after he inputted '07'.

"Wow! That really worked, Lan!"

"Great! Now, let's keep going!"

"Roger."

In this part of the school network, most of the paths looked like the flat ends of pencils joined together. But what to do was still the same: bust viruses and find the cause of the problem. At the end of a long path of pencils, there was another set of bars that got in Megaman's way. The hint this time was 'the number of flower pots just outside the school building'.

"Man..." Lan sighed. "I'll be right back, Megaman."

* * *

**In The Real World...**

Lan rushed outside he school building, to where the flower pots were, and was baffled at the sight of them. There were too many to count! But Lan couldn't give up. Not if he didn't want to become a World Three slave. So Lan started with 'one'.

After he got to the twenties, he heard someone say to him, "There are ninety nine."

Lan turned around to see a young woman with green hair, a brown headband with a swirl around it, a blue dress and brown pants and shoes.

"Ninety nine?" Lan repeated.

"Yes. There are ninety nine flower pots here. I know this because I water them everyday."

"Wow... It must be a pain to water all these flowers everyday, Sal! I mean, what if your mind suddenly went off track or something? Come to think of it, your life sounds like a difficult one to live in general! How do you do it?"

"I live as I do for nature," Sal smiled.

"Well, I have to head back now," Lan said, beginning to take off. "But thanks a lot! You've really saved us!"

Sal didn't know what Lan meant, but she paid it no mind and began to water the flowers.

Back with Megaman, Lan told him the code.

"Wow. Sounds pretty high," Megaman said. "You sure about that?"

"Yep."

Megaman punched in the code '99' and hoped his NetOp was correct. His wishes were granted as the way became open to him. Lan watched his Navi rush along the path and delete the viruses easily. He was near the AV Room, when suddenly, Megaman felt unsure of himself.

"Lan, I have a bad feeling about this..." he told his NetOp as he slowed his pace.

"What's wrong, Megaman?"

"I feel unstable energy near the AV Room. I think- Gaaaah!"

"Megaman! What's wrong!?"

Megaman was paralyzed by a trap. The unstable energy Megaman warned Lan of must have caused it, or so Lan thought. He assured his Navi that he would check out the AV Room and dashed out of the classroom once again. The AV Room was on the ground floor, so Lan also had to rush down some stairs. Just as he was about to enter the AV Room, he was bumped by someone making his way out.

"Sorry!" the man apologized, who followed it up by snorting. Lan could tell who it was by the sound in his voice.

"Higsby! Wait! What's going on!?" Lan called out, but Higsby sped up and got away. "What's with this teacher? First he ditches us while we do math drills, he didn't even try to help us when we were locked in and now this! Something's up... But now, I've gotta help Megaman!"

* * *

**Virus Log-**

Spookys: evasive, ghost like viruses that attack by licking and slowly recover damage over time if not deleted quickly

Beetanks: beetle like viruses that shoot bombs with their cannons

* * *

And that'll be a wrap.

Sal helping out Lan is my little nod to the anime. I wanted to include her somehow, so I gave her that little appearance. Who knows? Maybe we'll see her again, along with two certain other characters...

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	6. Chapter 5

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Reply to _Ghost501_'s review of Chapter 4: Yes, I think that the 'other two' should have reappeared somewhere along the lines. Maybe one of their Navis should have joined the team in BN5 and the other being a Link Navi in BN6!

Reply to _E_'s review of the Prologue: I see where you went with that. I try to look over my chapters and see where I can add in my own twists, to differentiate the novelization from the actual game's events.

Reply to _Stardustwarrior_'s review of Chapter 4: A third thumb? That'll take at least two people!

Hmm... I don't think I've ever heard of the LanXSal pairing. Then again, fans have paired more obscure characters together...

* * *

**-Chapter 5: Calculating And Recalculating-**

The AV Room had a yellow floor and was a room of many computers. For some strange reason, Lan saw that one of them was still turned on. Taking a look, he found that the screen was frozen at the desktop background. He assumed that the memory of that computer was full.

_Well, Megaman is frozen in place right now, _he thought to himself. _And this computer's frozen. Hmm..._

Lan's theory was that the frozen computer was what made Megaman freeze in place, so he held down the power button on it until it was shut down. Then, he pressed the button again to turn it back on. Wondering if what he did worked, he returned to Class 5-A to check on Megaman.

"Megaman!" Lan called to his Navi from his PET. "You okay?"

"Lan!" Megaman responded "You got me out! Thanks!"

"No problem! Now, let's go!"

There were several paths that branched out, with more branches branching from them. However, they all held viruses and met at one point. Lan saw Megaman mae his way through and guided him in deleting the viruses along the way. Afterwards, Megaman was greeted with another set of bars that required a code. '07' was punched in and the the way was open once again.

Megaman continued his way along the pencil shaped paths until he came across another set of bars. This one, however, was a darker shade of blue than the others and Lan and Megaman noticed no set of buttons around. Instead, there was a slot to insert a type of card in.

"Why now?" Lan groaned. "Where can we get a card like that anyway?"

"Could Ms Mari have one?" Megaman suggested.

"Hmm... Maybe... I'll be right back, Megaman!"

Because Ms Mari never reentered the classroom after introducing the class to Mr Higsby, Lan found that things were getting a bit difficult. However, he remembered that he bumped into Higsby earlier, who looked like he was in a rush. Thinking that it was linked to where Ms Mari was, Lan went to the bottom floor, where he saw Higsby, and searched all the rooms for his teacher.

As Lan passed the door to the Storage Room, he heard muffled cries for help. The boy rushed into the dusty room and found his tied up friend Tory! He untied his friend and ripped off the duct tape from his mouth.

"Tory! What are you doing here?" Lan asked him.

"I thought I heard Ms Mari in here," he said. "But Mr Higsby found me and tied me up!"

"What? Then where's Ms Mari?"

"Mmmph!" a muffled voice sounded from somewhere.

Lan and Tory began to search around until Lan found his teacher in one of the closets. He swung the door open and found his teacher tied up and unable to speak. He untied her, while Tory caught up with him and peeled off the duct tape.

"Thank you, Lan and Tory!" Ms Mari cried in relief. She took a deep breath and asked him, "But what are you doing here?"

"World Three's trying to enslave us kids!" Lan told her. She gasped at this. "And Megaman and I are trying to fix the problem! Hey, do you have an ID card?"

"What? Why, yes, I do, but why do you need it?"

"We need it to pass through! Please, Ms Mari! Let me borrow it!"

"Of course," Ms Mari smiled, handing the card over to her student. "You did save me, after all."

"Thanks!" Lan said, taking his leave. "And don't worry,! I can do this! Tory, you stay here and look after Ms Mari!"

As Lan stepped out of the room, he noticed a peculiar structure on the other side of the corridor. He realized that it was the time recorder and he noticed a slot on it. Looking at the card, he guessed that the time recorder was where to slot the card in. He slotted it in and rushed back to his PET.

* * *

**In The School Network.**..

Data surrounded the slot on the bars, revealing the ID card Lan used earlier. The bars disappeared, along with the card, signaling that the way was open. Megaman stepped into the area and searched for something suspicious. He found a huge server to his left and a NetNavi guarding it.

"Lan, this must be what's causing the reeducation program!" Megaman said. "And there's someone there!"

"Well, let's get through him!"

Megaman rushed to the server, but was blocked by the Navi. This green Navi had a head of a spherical computer server and ever changing numbers displayed on a little screen on his chest.

"Were my calculations wrong? I didn't think you would make it this far!" the Navi said to Megaman.

"We've got to stop the announcement program!" Megaman told him.

"Hmm? But being with World Three is fun! Right, Mr Higsby?"

"Yes!" Higsby responded, which could be heard by Lan through his PET. "The boss has promised me rare battle chips! And with my salary, I can buy plenty more!"

"I knew it!" Lan growled. "And you call yourself a teacher!"

"Heh... I did feel a little bad at first," Higsby grinned sheepishly, adjusting his glasses. Then, his expression changed. "But then, I realized that I would do anything for rare battle chips!"

"But why would you buy them with World Three's dirty money!?" Lan snapped.

"Silence!" Higsby yelled. "Now, you face me and Numberman!"

"Hah! No problem!" Lan grinned. "Megaman, let's go!"

"Stop him, Numberman! We need those rare battle chips!"

Megaman began to shoot at Numberman, who took direct hits from the Mega Buster's shots. However, after recovering, Numberman raised his hands up, summoning three blue balls (which he called 'Number Balls') in front of him, with timers on them. He released them at Megaman, who shot at them and narrowly dodged the third. Numberman's head began to glow red, signaling his rage, and he shot more of those balls at his opponent, hopefully taking him out with speed. But Megaman was just too quick for him. He dodged the balls, while bright energy formed in front of the Mega Buster. As he approached Numberman, he pointed his arm cannon at him and fired a charged up shot, sending him flying.

"No!" Higsby shouted. "Numberman! Long Sword! Battle chip in! Download!"

"Area Steal! Battle chip in! Download!" Lan shouted, slotting in an Area Steal chip.

Numberman's right arm morphed into a Long Sword, which, on the surface, appeared to be a stretched out version of the Cyber Sword. As he dived down at Megaman, he saw the blue Navi disappear! However, his orange eyes and computer head glowed green and he began to calculate his enemy's new position. As soon as Megaman reappeared, he took a devastating swing of the Long Sword and was sent flying away.

"Yes! Now we've got him!" Higsby grinned evilly. "Cannon X2! Battle chips in! Download!"

Numberman's Long Sword and left arm changed into two green cannons. He took aim and fired at Megaman. After the blue Navi was left on the ground, Numberman walked to him, raised his hands up and spawned three ticking time bombs around the blue Navi.

"Ha ha! Taking into account the proximity of these bombs and the force they exert, I calculate that this fight is over," he smirked.

"Megaman! If we're gonna beat this guy, we need to strike quickly!" Lan told Megaman as he struggled to get up.

"Don't bother!" Higsby said to Lan. "When Numberman calculates something, he's always right!"

"Well, he'll be wrong today!" Lan grinned. "Megaman! Wide Sword X2! Battle chips in! Download!"

Megaman stretched his arms out and two swords, each thicker than a Cyber Sword, took his arms' places. Just before the time bombs displayed '0', they were sliced in half and disintegrated into scrambled bits of data. Megaman got into a fighting position and began to spin like a top at Numberman. In panic, Numberman summoned a wave of Number Balls, which were sliced in half like the time bombs. Megaman repeatedly slashed at Numberman while spinning and sent his opponent flying. The Wide Swords disintegrated and Megaman's arms returned.

After Numberman got up from the cyber ground, he had enough. He raised his hands up high and data gathered in two piles. The data formed dice, which fell in Numberman's hands. He threw them beside Megaman and anticipated his result.

"Ha ha ha! When the dice land, they'll explode!" he cackled. "And the power depends on the numbers rolled. If it's a double six, you're finished!"

"And what makes you think you'll be lucky?" Megaman smirked.

"Hah! I calculate a high chance of a double six!"

The two Navis stood strong. The dice remained above the cyber ground and were still spinning. In no time, they landed. The results were a shock.

"Snake eyes!?" Numberman shrieked. "That's not... That's not possible!"

"Hah!" Megaman grinned, barely feeling a thing from the exploding dice. "Haven't you heard that gambling will get you nowhere?"

"Alright, Megaman!" Lan cheered. "Spreader! Battle chip in! Download!"

Megaman's Mega Buster reformed. Though Numberman summoned more Number Balls in the blue Navi's way, they were all destroyed, thanks to the wide area Spreader chips were able to cover. Some of them even got through to Numberman!

"Area Steal and Spreader! Battle chips in! Download!" Lan called out, sending the chip data to Megaman.

As Numberman recovered, he found himself unable to see his opponent once again. He knew that he would reappear behind, so he span around, swinging his fist at his opponent. However, the rather weak punch didn't inflict too much damage on Megaman, who let loose with a second Spreader. At close range, the bombardment of shots did a lot of combined damage to Numberman.

"Great job, Megaman!" Lan cheered. "Now, to wrap this up! Fighter Sword! Battle chip in! Download!"

"No!" Higsby screamed. "I won't stand for this! Those rare battle chips will be mine! Numberman! It's time for our secret weapon! Knight Sword! Battle chip in! Download!"

The emerald green Knight Sword and the red Fighter Sword clashed and the two Navis pushed forward at each other, refusing to give up until the other went down. Sparks flew as the two swords grinded against each other. Though the Knight Sword was stronger than the Fighter Sword, Numberman's state, slightly worse than Megaman's, slowly took effect. It eventually got to the point when he was overwhelmed by the force Megaman exerted and took a swing to the stomach. Numberman screamed in pain, but his NetOp ordered him to jack out before it was too late, so he fled from the battle.

"..." Higsby remained silent.

"Just admit it!" Lan told him. "You've been wrong all along!"

"You're... right..." Higsby admitted solemnly. "I shouldn't collect rare battle chips by being with World Three. I should collect them fairly, by busting viruses. I'll be good from now on, I promise!"

"That's great," Lan said. "But... You still have to pay for your crimes... So, do something to help people out, alright?"

"I will!"

"Megaman, restart the server."

"On it."

* * *

**In Front Of The Server...**

Lan, his friends and Ms Mari witnessed the main school's server flash different colors. After a few beeps, bleeps and bloops, the server restarted and everything was back to normal. Everyone heard cheers of joy and relief, meaning that the announcement program had stopped.

"You did it, Lan!" Maylu cheered.

"Yay for Lan!" Tory cheered also.

"Hey, Lan. Not bad," Dex smiled.

"'Not bad'?" Yai sneered. "You mean 'great'!"

"Yeah, whatever," Dex responded.

"Megaman," Lan addressed him. "Good job."

"Heh heh. But don't relax yet, Lan."

"That's right," Ms Mari agreed with Lan's Navi. "Next up is English class!"

"Aw man!" Lan whined. "I fixed the server too soon..."

The whole group laughed away in response.

* * *

Alright, that's the second boss fight done. But the day's not over yet. There's plans to be made after school, but will they be carried out without interruption? Knowing how this world works, perhaps not!

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	7. Chapter 6

******I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Reply to _Ghost501's _review of Chapter 5: Well, you know what they say - love comes in many forms.

The thing about the anime, NT Warrior, is that the execution is kinda like Sonic X's (censorship, not so great dubbing and all...). They sorta follow the games' plots, but not as closely as some people would like. However, they did do a few things right. A couple of them will be applied to this novelization.

* * *

**-Chapter 6: No Train, No Gain, Pain-**

**After School...**

"Rough day today, huh?" Megaman smiled to Lan.

"Yeah," Lan sighed, relieved that the day was done. "And I didn't even deserve it! I save the school and this is my reward?" Megaman couldn't help but laugh at that statement. "Anyway, Megaman, what do you wanna do now?"

"Well, the Metroline's opening today. Maybe we could surprise your dad down at SciLab!"

"Good idea! Let's go!"

The Metroline was just near Dex's yellow house. There was an entrance to the underground service with a picture of a train speeding by on top. Lan couldn't wait to see his dad at work in SciLab. However, just as he was about to take a step down the staircase, Tory came speeding up. He, too, was headed for the Metroline to help out his father at the Waterworks, but just got word that the public transport system was having problems. He found out why and rushed home in a hurry.

"Tory! What's wrong?" Lan asked him.

"Apparently, there's been a landslide that's stopping the trains from running," he answered. "I'm gonna jack Iceman into the Net to check things out."

"The Net?"

"I asked one of the guys who works at the Metroline and they told me that the train system's run by a computer," Tory told Lan. "And when there's an accident, the safety program should stop the trains. But the program was hit by a virus!"

"What!? Did someone get in from the control room?"

"It didn't look that way, so they must have got in through the Net."

"We've gotta find out who's causing this," Lan said. "I'll jack in, too."

"Great!" Tory responded. "Let's get moving!"

Lan and Tory immediately rushed to their homes and jacked their Navis into the Net.

* * *

**On The Net...**

In no time, Megaman and Iceman arrived in the ACDC Area and regrouped with each other. The two Navis overheard what had happened to the Metroline, so by their NetOps' orders, they began to search for the cause of the problem. They began their search in the 'Metroline Area', west of the ACDC Area. It was a round path that encircled an entire other network area, making it the longest area in the entire DenTech Area. Around the path were branches of other paths, which led to other parts of the area.

Megaman and Iceman searched around, only to find a boulder ahead. Then, they heard cries for help. They assumed that it was the safety program.

"What happened!?" Megaman shouted to him.

"I... I don't know!" the Mr Prog answered fearfully. "I was just doing my job, when all of a sudden, this stone like Navi came in and smashed the cyber ground! Then, boulders fell down and trapped me here! What should I do!? If they find that I'm not doing my job, I'll be deleted! I'm too young to be deleted!"

"Hey, cool it," Iceman said to him. "We'll get you out."

"Yeah!" Megaman smiled. "All we need to do is get rid of the boulders and you'll be-"

A rumble interrupted Megaman. He and Iceman frantically turned around. Then, a shadow of a boulder appeared. A boulder crashed on the cyber ground, trapping Megaman and Iceman! From a blue light, a stone like Navi emerged. The shadow of his stature alone would have been enough to scare away some Navis away, but Megaman and Iceman stood strong.

"What do you think you're doing!?" Megaman demanded to know.

"Blocking the Metroline safety program!" the Navi boomed. "So the Metroline won't open!"

"Why would you do such a thing!?"

"To control the Net, of course!"

"Another one of World Three's cronies... You're not having control of anything! Get those rocks out of there!"

"Ha ha ha! Never! I, Stoneman, will delete all programs and Navis that interfere!"

"Not if we're the ones interfering, Rocky!" Megaman shouted. "Iceman! You ready?"

"Let's freeze this guy!" Iceman grinned. "Got our chips ready, Tory?"

"You bet, Iceman! You ready, too, Lan?"

"Yeah! Let's go!"

Megaman and Iceman jumped into action. Megaman fired his Mega Buster at Stoneman, while Iceman breathed his trademark Cyber Blizzard. Unfortunately, the combined attacks left no effect on Stoneman. He laughed at them tauntingly before slamming his round arms on the cyber ground, sending a wave of stones raining down at his enemies. Megaman and Iceman jumped about and narrowly dodged the rocks that came their way and attempted to damage him again, still to no effect.

Stoneman roared and towers of stone blocks formed around Megaman and Iceman, confining them to one square. Slamming his arms down once more, he summoned more rocks down and they began to crash down at the two.

"What do we do now?" Megaman groaned.

"Tory! Do you have that Ice Punch chip with you?" Iceman asked his NetOp.

Flashing the battle chip out, Tory called out, "Here it is! Ice Punch! Battle chip in! Download!"

Iceman's right hand morphed into a giant, blue fist. After awaiting the rocks to fall closer, he raised it up, blocking the rocks that came and fell. After Stoneman shouted in shock, Iceman began to smash the stone cubes that encased him and Megaman. With rapid speed, the towers were crushed and the two Navis were free.

"Wow, Iceman! That was cool!" Megaman grinned.

"Heh heh..."

"Is that the best you can do!?" Stoneman boomed, his yellow eyes turning red. "Take this!"

The stone Navi's arms broke down into pieces of data. They floated around for a while and disappeared into the cyber ground. From where they crashed, Stoneman's arms began to rise up. After a second, they opened up, revealing two blasters. The arms rotated to turn to Megaman and Iceman and the blasters glowed green. After blinking, two lasers were shot out, which Megaman and Iceman barely dodged.

Stoneman roared, spawning more stone cubes to block his enemies' way. Megaman's Mega Buster destroyed them with charged shots, for Iceman's Ice Punch fist morphed back into his regular hand. He shot at the stone cubes and Stoneman with Ice Slashers, shards of ice which Iceman could summon and fire at will. The two continually fired at Stoneman, while dodging the lasers the rock Navi's arms fired and destroying the cubes that Stoneman spawned. Apparently, Stoneman's defenses were lowered when his arms are off. This was exploited in the battle. With each powerful chip used, Stoneman's body began to crumble. Eventually, all that was left was his head. As the last of the stone body crumbled away, Stoneman's head fell down to the cyber ground. Megaman pointed his Mega Buster at him.

"Now, get rid of those rocks," he commanded Stoneman.

"Fine. You've proved your worth," Stoneman growled, hopping over to one of the boulders that trapped the Mr Prog. He stopped suddenly.

Then, he cackled.

"You fool! This is what you get for showing mercy to World Three!"

Stoneman jumped in the air and attempted to warp away, but Iceman quickly leaped forwards and shot an Ice Slasher, destroying what was left of the World Three Navi and deleting him.

Turning to Megaman, Iceman asked him, "Hey, you okay?"

"... Yeah. Let's get this thing back up and running!"

Megaman rapidly fired at one boulder until it crumbled away. Then, Iceman fired Ice Slashers the other boulder blocking the Mr Prog from the other side. The Mr Prog leaped with joy.

"Thank you ever so much! Thank you, you two!" he chanted. "Now I can do my job again!"

"Heh heh. No prob," Megaman and Iceman responded before they jacked out.

* * *

**In The Real World...**

"Alright, Megaman! Now we can see my dad!" Lan grinned.

"And I can go help out my father, Iceman!" Tory smiled.

The two friends regrouped at the Metroline. The people were overjoyed to hear that everything was up and running again and immediately rushed in line to buy their tickets. Children in eighth grade or below, however, didn't have to pay for theirs, so Lan and Tory waited until they received their tickets and boarded the next train.

After only twenty minutes of train travel, the two got off at their stop and exited the Metroline. There were three big buildings in sight: the Center, the Waterworks to the left and SciLab to the right. These three buildings stood on top of one man made island: Marine Harbor, an island south of ACDC Town and at the south east corner of DenTech City.

After Lan and Tory said their goodbyes and split up, Lan entered SciLab, to be greeted with a main office like front room. He saw a receptionist next to the elevator with red doors and asked her where his father was. After being told to check out his lab upstairs, Lan waited for the elevator and stepped in when it came. He punched in the floor number, the doors closed and the elevator want up, stopping at the appointed floor.

There was a corridor before Yuichiro Hikari's lab, but it wasn't a long one and Lan walked on by in no time. There was a computer area tucked in the far right corner of the salmon floored room. On the left hand side of the room was a monitor for jack in tests. But what was missing? Of course! Lan's dad!

"Don't tell me we came all this way for nothing!" Lan groaned.

"C'mon, Lan. Dad's probably just busy," Megaman assured him.

"As usual..." his NetOp couldn't help but sigh. Situations like this made him whether he liked the scientist side to his father or not...

"Hey, we could leave him a message on his computer," Megaman suggested. "Why don't you jack me into it?"

"Well... Alright. Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"

After jacking Megaman in, Lan typed up a message for his Navi to give to a caretaker Mr Prog and, after having the message received, jacked him out. By Megaman's suggestion, he headed for home.

On his way, the PET bleeped. Megaman told Lan that he had new mail. Wondering who it was from, he opened it up.

"Hey, it's from dad!" the boy beamed. "Let's see what it says, Megaman!"

"'Sorry I was too busy when you came to visit.'" the Navi read out. "'To make up for it, here's some battle chip data for you. Enjoy!'"

"Oh, man. I hope it's something cool!"

After Lan arrived back home, he went to his room and downloaded the battle chip data. The picture on the blank space was a Normal Navi with what looked like a Cyber Sword, but electric sparks in a similar color to the sword encircling it.

"Ooh, this might come in handy," Lan mused.

"It might just be the weakness of the next World Three Navi we fight!" Megaman spoke up.

"Maybe," Lan said in response, switching on his computer. "But enough talk about battle strategies! Let's explore the Net!"

"Lan, don't you have to do that homework Ms Mari set?" Megaman half sighed half scolded Lan.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get to that in a bit."

"And this is why you never..." the blue Navi began to mumble under his breath. However, he didn't know where he was going with it, so he stopped midway.

* * *

Bah, the Stoneman scenario never added anything to the plot of the game. When I first wrote this, I considered skipping it out! However, I pushed on and what you've read was the fruit of my efforts. Regardless of how you thought it went, I hope to see you guys in the next chapter!

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	8. Chapter 7

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Before I begin, I would like to say a big thank you to '_Skyzerk_' for adding this story to their alerts and favorites.

* * *

Reply to _Ghost501_'s review of Chapter 6: One of the biggest problems with dubbed anime in general is the censorship (attempts to keep the show 'kid friendly', I guess). Ironic for 4Kids' Sonic X voice actors, for they would later voice act in games like Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06, not the most kid friendly games in the Sonic series...

In fact, Shadow the Hedgehog (one of the first Sonic games people like Jason Griffith, Amy Palant and Dan Green voiced in) is the least kid friendly! So much so, that it's out of place in the Sonic series, but I digress...

I would never rely on Stoneman's chips when I go back to MMBN. If the stones fell in a set motion, then it could have worked in a combo with Area Grab (Area Steal). But no...

* * *

**-Chapter 7: No Water? No Way!-**

**A Month After The School Jacking...**

"Lan! It's morning!"

Days upon days of school have passed by Lan and friends and not much had changed. This was another typical morning for Lan.

The boy groaned in tiredness. Megaman could make out the words he uttered, something about it being Saturday and how Lan wanted to sleep in.

"Hmm. Guess you got me there," Megaman confessed.

"Hah."

"But..."

"Oh no. Not the 'but'."

"You have weekend class this week," the blue Navi smirked. "So, up you get!"

"Man..." Lan whined, dressing out of his PJs and into his usual attire.

Lan made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen, to see his mother looking quite worried.

"What's wrong, mom?" Lan asked her.

"The... The water's off. So, no breakfast..."

"What!? But I'm hungry! And thirsty!"

"Doesn't look like your mom can do much without water," Megaman told Lan. "Let's just get going before you're late again."

"Fine," Lan sighed, heading for the door. He stepped outside after bidding his mother farewell, to see Maylu again.

"You're late. Again," she sighed.

"Sorry, sorry!"

And so, the two friends headed for school. A few minutes of walking later, Lan heard his own stomach grumble. He needed to eat something! Before it was too late!

"Um, Maylu? Did you have any water at home?" he suddenly asked her.

"No... You?"

"Nope."

"You too?"

"Yeah. I can't take this anymore!" Lan whined like a little child.

"I know! I couldn't even wash my face!" Maylu sighed. Before they knew it, they were at school.

"You can wash it here now," Lan assured his friend.

"I hope so..."

At the front yard, where the ninety nine flower pots were, there was a pond, which was fenced up. A statue resided next to the lily pads and cool blue water. But wait a minute. There's no water for the pond, either! Just the statue and lily pads! What in the world happened?

"Oh no! What if the whole school has no water either!?" Lan panicked.

"It might be only this neighborhood," Maylu suggested. "But still, I'm worried. I'm gonna check it out." With that, the red haired girl took off. Lan followed close behind, but the two passed Sal by the flower pots, who looked very upset.

"It's horrible," she sighed in disappointment.

"What's wrong, Sal?" Maylu asked her.

"I couldn't get any water for these flowers to grow," Sal frowned. "Without water, they might cease to exist!"

"Well, if we don't find the cause of the problem, we'll cease to exist, too!" Lan said. "We'll deal with it when we figure it out. Don't you worry, Sal!"

"Please do, Lan..."

The students in the school building weren't that upbeat, either. Everywhere Lan and Maylu went, they heard complaints about being hungry or thirsty. They also heard some of the younger students weeping and some of the sixth graders fearing for what was to come. The fifth graders were no exception to the depression that swept over ACDC Elementary. This included Class 5-A.

"Hey, Lan. Hey, Maylu," Dex and Yai greeted them in a melancholic manner.

"No water for you guys, either?" Maylu assumed.

"Yeah!" Yai suddenly snapped back. "And when I find out who did this, I'm gonna sue!" Aside from being the daughter of the owner of AyanoTech, suing could also explain how Yai and her family became rich.

"I'm so thirsty, I'm not even in the mood to Net Battle," Dex continued to frown. He was always itching to pit Gutsman in a fight, but this time, it wasn't happening.

"Hey, wait a minute," Lan said. "Where's Tory? Isn't he usually the first of us to get here?"

"Hmm... Now that I think about it, I kinda smell a rat," Yai admitted. "Wait. Doesn't his father work at the Waterworks?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Oh, the nerve that guy has! He's probably the one that started this problem! That dirty-"

Luckily, the school bell stopped Yai from going onto a rant. She growled slightly. Afterwards, everyone took their seats and Ms Mari entered the classroom.

"Yo, teach!" Dex shouted impolitely and impatiently. "We ain't got no water!"

"Now, be quiet, Dex," Ms Mari told him off. "We'll talk about that now." Addressing the rest of the class (apart from Tory, of course), she began. "As you know, all of the town's water has stopped."

"Do you know why, Ms Mari?" Maylu asked, raising her hand.

"Unfortunately, I don't. And I'm not sure when it will be fixed. I'm afraid I'll have to cancel class for today." All of a sudden, some of the students began to cheer, but not before stopping after Ms Mari said that it would get them thirstier. With that, everyone headed for home.

As his friends passed by him, Lan walked slowly, speaking with Megaman.

"Do you really think the Waterworks stopped the water on purpose?" Lan asked his Navi.

"Not because they wanted to," he reminded his NetOp. "They may have been forced to do so."

"Hm..."

"Hey, let's check out the Waterworks and see if they know what's wrong," Megaman suggested.

"Yeah. Let's go," Lan responded nonchalantly.

During the train ride to Marine Harbor, Lan decided to call up Tory to ask what was wrong. There was no response. Lan pondered on why this was so. Tory always answered his calls. Regardless, after he arrived at Marine Harbor, he headed for the Waterworks. Lan saw a waiting lobby as soon as he entered, walled off with shelves of books and a TV set. There were also some vending machines nearby, but they were empty for now. It wasn't important, anyway.

There were two receptionists, each with their own receptionist table. Lan noticed that the one to his left was clearly packed, hearing complaints as he passed it in favor of the other one. This one was not so busy. However, there was a boy who looked older than Lan in front of him. He wore camo pants and a red vest over a black shirt. His hair was like nothing Lan had seen. The sides of this boy's hair was black, but the top of it was white. Lan heard this boy talking with the receptionist in front of him.

"Therefore, a check of the Waterworks is needed."

"You're an Official Net Battler, right?" the woman said to him. "If you could show me your ID card-"

"Here," the mystery boy interrupted her, handing her his ID card. She took a look at it.

"I see... Very well. Insert your card to use the elevator next to you. It will take you around the works."

"Thank you." The boy turned around for the elevator, but he caught sight of Lan. "What's a kid like you doing here?" he scowled. "You're in the way." He pushed him slightly before leaving.

"What's his problem?" Lan growled quietly.

"I dunno," Megaman spoke up. "But did you hear that? He's an Official Net Battler. They fight net crime and can Net Battle anywhere they want. I wonder what kind of Navis they use..."

"Who cares? Let's check out the Waterworks!"

"But Lan! Don't you need an ID card?"

"Man... Where are we gonna get one?"

Lan left the Waterworks building, thinking about where an ID card would be. Realizing that his father must have kept one somewhere, Lan went to SciLab to 'borrow' it for a while, against Megaman's protests. Lan was warned that his father would get angry, but went against Megaman's warning and took it anyway.

Returning to the receptionist, he noticed that she was very busy with some paperwork. Lan showed her the ID card, in hopes that she would let him in. She took a glance at the card, but not the person, and immediately let Lan through. He used to card to open the elevator and stepped in. At once, it went up a floor. Lan exited, but he was stopped by one of the scientists there.

"This area's for staff only!" he scolded the child.

"Um... ACDC Town's water supply has stopped," he told him calmly.

"Yeah, I know," the scientist said. "Apparently, there's a bug in the pump program. We're doing our best to remove it, so the problem should be fixed soon."

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

"It would have been bad if it were a World Three scheme. Thanks for coming down to tell us."

"No prob," Lan smiled, taking off to head for home. Megaman, who had overheard what was happening, had suspicions.

It was strange that a Net Battler would check out a bug. Plus, it wasn't just the water that was missing. Both Lan and Megaman agreed that the problem would be hard to fix. However, they decided to look into it anyway. But they couldn't do it with the staff around. They needed a hiding spot for now. The waiting lobby would have to do. Luckily, there was no one else around. Since the Waterworks building closed at noon on weekends, the complainers and the staff all left at that time. Lan hid behind one of the chairs, not being caught by anyone. As soon as the coast as clear, he headed for the elevator, which was still operating.

Lan took a look around the higher floor, but his ears caught the sound of typing. Lan's ears pressed on a locked door with a red label on it, to find that the typing came from there.

"Whoever's in there must be using a PC, Lan," Megaman said to him.

"We can't check out the network like this! I'll find someplace to jack you in to!"

Lan took another look around the area. There was a receptionist table, but the woman was not present. After taking a look around the table, Lan found nothing to jack in to. He headed for the elevator and found a water cooler near it.

"Hey, this will do the trick, Megaman!" Lan said to him, noticing a jack in port.

"Let's do it!"

"Yeah! Jack in, Megama-"

"Hey!" Suddenly, a shriek from a woman stopped Lan.

_Uh oh... Busted..._

The woman in front of Lan had pink hair with 'ponytails' that spiked out a little. Her white shirt had orange sleeves and her pants had green and blue horizontal stripes.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded to know.

"Um... I... Uh... I got lost..."

"I see." Apparently, she bought it. "Well, you're not supposed to be in here. So go home! Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Lan immediately affirmed.

"Good boy," the woman grinned suspiciously, patting Lan on the head before heading for the door that the typing came from. Lan motioned towards the elevator and used it to go back down.

"We're not going home after that, are we?" Megaman asked him.

"Heck no!" Lan answered. "I needed to protect my cover!"

"Well, let's do it!"

"Of course!"

Lan used the elevator again to go up to the higher floor. After noticing that the strange woman was absent, he headed for the water cooler.

"Let's go! Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"

* * *

Woo, that was a much more fun chapter to write (despite the Waterworks scenario being my second worst area in the game). Everyone actually has purpose, even the mystery boy in the red vest!

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	9. Chapter 8

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Reply to _Ghost501_'s review of Chapter 7: The problem for me is positioning Megaman at the right angle. If I mess up, I would bump into a wall, slide along it and to the wrong path. Then, I have to backtrack and try again.

* * *

**-Chapter 8: Not So Cool As Ice-**

**In The Waterworks Network...**

The cyber sky was dark blue with bright images of water droplets which stood out from the dark. The cyber ground was mostly made up of brown platforms with green pipe like bridge structures connecting them. Seemed ordinary, right?

"Funny... It's frozen here," Megaman mused, noticing that some of the platforms and bridges were encrusted with sheets of ice as he took a walk around. "No Navis, no Mr Progs... What!?"

"What's wrong, Megaman!?"

There were indeed some Mr Progs scattered about, as far as Megaman could see, but they were frozen!

"One of the guys said that they would be debugging!" Lan said. "Why are they frozen?"

"Something's up, Lan," Megaman warned his NetOp. "But I'll go and find the water supply and see what exactly is up."

"Let's do this, Megaman."

Megaman began to head forward through the bridge. It was the only thing to walk on to in order to progress. The blue Navi took it slowly, step by step, as he was walking on ice, and he didn't want to slip! He continued to walk along in this manner until he came across a stream of water. At first, he was shocked, but he took a look upwards to see that it was coming from a large tap. On Lan's advice, he decided to find a way to turn it off. Conveniently, there was a path which branched off and upwards to the tap, so Megaman gingerly stepped to it. There was no ice on this side path, so he paced normally.

Suddenly, two blue clusters of data began to form on top of the slope. Megaman formed his Mega Buster, ready for the viruses that were to come. The groups of data formed into two VolGears. Their bodies were big gray mouths and they had flames for limbs and gray pointed hats. One of the VolGears had red flames and a red face, while the other had blue flames and a blue face. They didn't look too challenging, but the moment they opened their mouths, two pillars, one of fire and one of water, surged upwards and began to rush down the slope at Megaman. But he just stood there.

"Megaman! Do something!" Lan commanded him. "The Fire Tower and Aqua Tower are heading straight for you!"

"Heh heh. Watch," Megaman said to his NetOp.

Megaman awaited the two towers to home in on him. They did so. Megaman smirked. The Fire Tower and Aqua Tower suddenly collided with each other and a huge cyber smoke cloud covered the area. The smoke eventually cleared. Megaman and the VolGears still stood on the opposite ends of the slope. There was a silence.

"Oh, I get it!" Lan said, breaking the silence. "Water puts out fire in the cyberworld, too!"

"See, Lan? I had nothing to worry about," Megaman responded. To the VolGears, he taunted them, "Maybe you two don't work so well together after all! Don't worry, I'll separate you from each other!"

The viruses showed off a panicked look on their faces as Megaman charged his Mega Buster. He rapidly fired at the red VolGear, deleting it in an instant. In immense fear, the blue VolGear hopped away. Megaman let it go, for it left the area and probably vowed to never harm anything again.

"Well, that was easy," Lan realized. "But enough of that. Let's turn off that tap, Megaman."

The Navi made his way up the slope and continued to his right, to where the tap was. Gripping the handle with his two hands, he turned it counterclockwise. The water flow shrunk gradually until it stopped completely. Megaman headed back the way he came and continued along the main path. A few steps later, he came across an ice encrusted crossroad. Ice was one thing, crossroads were another, but the two put together didn't appeal to Megaman at all. Taking a wild guess, he cautiously stepped along the left path, only to find a dead end brown platform. he headed back and tried the middle, only to encounter a blue VolGear. It was deleted quickly, but it was a minor nuisance regardless. After returning back, Megaman headed for the right path, the only path left.

"This place can get pretty confusing," he said to himself along the way. "Probably to keep away intruders..."

"Well, we're here to save this place! Why do they have to make things difficult for us?" Lan groaned.

"Nothing is ever fair, Lan," Megaman sighed. "The best thing we can do is just go along with it."

"You know, Megaman, I have a feeling we'll be doing this a lot more often."

"Do what?"

"Saving the day! I mean, the house and the school were safe thanks to our actions, but what if there are a lot more problems and we're the only ones who can fix them?"

"You're just being paranoid, Lan. There shouldn't be any more problems after this one."

"Let's hope so, at least..."

After a few minutes of crossroads, taps and viruses, Megaman encountered a Navi! Yes, a Navi in the frozen Waterworks Network! This red Navi's white hair flowed down. His helmet had a fin spiking upwards and a white ring surrounding the bottom of it. There was an emblem on his red chest: a yellow circle split in a thunderbolt pattern into black and white sections. This could also be seen on the back of his red gloves.

He also wore shades! To be cool? Sure!

At this moment, the red Navi had a Cyber Sword ready, but it was purple, unlike the regular blue sword.

"Who are you?" he demanded to know.

"That's no Waterworks Navi!" Megaman said to himself.

"He must be part of World Three!" Lan warned him. "Watch out!"

At that moment, the mysterious Navi lunged for Megaman and swung his sword at him, only to be barely dodged.

"What are you doing!?" Megaman shouted.

"You dare call me one of those World Three lackeys?" the Navi growled.

"What's the matter, Protoman?" a voice asked him. It sounded strangely familiar to Lan.

"Chaud, sir!" Protoman addressed him.

"You! From before!" Lan called out to the same person.

"What? You again?" the boy grunted. "You lost or something? Because I can tell you're definitely not an Official Net Battler."

"Do I sound lost to you?" Lan retorted.

"Fine. I guess I'll introduce myself. The name's Chaud Blaze and my Navi here is Protoman."

"Get out of the way or I'll delete you, kid," Protoman threatened Megaman.

"You can't just delete whoever's in your way!" Lan snarled.

"I can and have the power to do so, Chaud replied nonchalantly. "But I can't waste time with you now. I have a job to do. I'll deal with you later. Protoman, jack out!"

"Yes, sir!"

"PROTOMAN, LOGGING OUT," a computerized voice announced as Protoman disappeared in a blue light.

"What an attitude that guy has," Lan growled.

"Lan, calm down," Megaman told him. "Getting angrier will make you thirstier."

"Fine... You're right," Lan sighed. "Let's go."

"Roger."

Megaman continued to make his way round the convoluted maze known as the Waterworks Network when out of nowhere, blue bits of data appeared in front of and to the sides of him. He pointed his Mega Buster in front of him and turned around cautiously. The viruses that spawned were Piranhas, but unlike the real world's carnivorous fish, they took turns shooting arrows at Megaman. He only got hit once, but it was a minor wound which would recover itself. The Navi warped behind the leftward Piranha with Area Steal and blasted it with a point blank Spreader shot, deleting the virus. Maneuvering around the arrow shots, he blasted at the remaining two Piranhas and deleted them.

"Megaman! That arrow didn't hurt too bad, did it?"

"Nah. It's all good, Lan."

After that encounter, Megaman continued rightward (in relation to where he was originally headed, of course), then turned right from where the paths branched off. What he found was a tap with water running. However, there was something off about that one.

"Hm? How did the handle come off?" Megaman wondered out loud.

"What? Well, it doesn't matter for now," Lan said to his Navi. "Let's find another way."

After heading back to where he encountered the Piranhas, Megaman decided to head straight. Continuing along the correct path (or so he and Lan assumed), he saw more bits of data, signaling viruses were about. This time, the viruses were a Fishy and a Puffy. The Puffy fired a bubble and Megaman kept jumping out of its way, but the bubble homed in on the Navi as it kept bouncing. The Fishy took aim and blasted off at Megaman and landed a direct hit. The virus charged backwards for a second hit. Megaman got up easily, however, and barraged at the Puffy with Mega Buster shots, taking the bubble down with it, for he knew that the bubble would get in the way. He received a Wide Sword from Lan and awaited the Fishy's attack. The green virus charged forward, but was sliced on half.

"You okay, Megaman?" Lan asked him. "That Fishy virus attack looked like it hurt a lot."

"No cuts or anything," Megaman reassured him as he kept walking. "I'll be fine."

After a long pathway, Megaman finally arrived at the pump. It was a huge structure, albeit in a very frozen state as of that moment. A voice was then heard.

"So, you're the ones behind this!"

"Huh?" Megaman looked for the source of the noise, to find a Navi confronted with two ColdBear viruses. This hunched over Navi resembled a shark, but with two legs instead of a tail. Appropriately, he was called Sharkman.

"Unfreeze the pump and I won't have to delete you!" Sharkman yelled at the ColdBears.

"Sharkman!" Megaman called for him.

"Hmm?" Sharkman turned around and found Megaman. "Well, if it isn't Megaman!"

"Sharkman? Then, that means..." Lan began.

"Yep! It's me!" a voice called to Lan, who recognized the voice. The two knew each other for a while and last fought alongside each other against a minor World Three attack on DenTech Town Aquarium.

"Maysa! But how did you get Sharkman in here?"

"Shhh. I'm hiding in the basement of the Waterworks," Maysa answered in a hushed tone.

"Wait. There's a jack in port for this place there? And there's a basement I didn't know about!?"

"Yep. Behind the- hey, that reminds me. How did you get in here?"

"The water cooler upstairs."

"What? But don't you need an ID card to get up there?"

"About that..."

"Well, it doesn't matter now, boy. These guys ain't gonna unfreeze the pump, so we're gonna have to delete 'em!"

"Ha! Let's do this!"

The ColdBears shot blocks of ice at Megaman and Skarkman, but they were either dodged easily or broken through by Sharkman's Fin Cutter attack, a fin shaped projectile attack that he could fire from his fins. The Fin Cutter knocked a ColdBear away and Megaman took advantage of this by shooting that same one with a charged Mega Buster shot. The other ColdBear, however, was persistent enough to keep shooting ice blocks at the two Navis, but it only resulted in failure. A combined attack from a Cannon shot and another Fin Cutter was all that it took to finish the job.

"That was all they got?" Sharkman smirked. "Too easy!"

"Yep! Piece of cake!" Megaman smirked also. "Hey, Lan! We did it!"

The two Coldbears were indeed linked to the freezing of the pump. The ice shrouding it began to disintegrate. Bit by bit, the ice disappeared until all that remained was the big pump itself.

"We did it!" Lan cheered. "Thanks for the help, Maysa!"

"Aw, I didn't do much," Maysa laughed sheepishly. "But hey, let's go check out the water! Maybe all the fish will be happily swimming now!"

"I hope so, too."

* * *

**Outside The Waterworks...**

There was a pond to the left of the Waterworks. Like the school's pond, it was normally clear and clean. What made it different from the school's was that there was a fountain at the center. It was a statue of a fish with an open mouth and water rushed up from the mouth and down into the pond. Because of the water problems, it was in an empty state the whole morning. Not even the fish poured out the clear liquid from its mouth.

But because the pump was fixed, the water have returned back, right? Well, the water did come back, but not the way Lan and Maysa expected it to.

It was polluted.

* * *

**Virus Log-**

VolGears: gray mouth viruses which open themselves to fire their attacks; those with red flames fire Fire Towers and those with blue flames shoot Aqua Towers (putting the two together isn't a good idea)

Piranhas: fish like viruses which shoot arrows from their mouths (usually come in pairs or trios)

Fishys: green jet bird like viruses which charge back and forth at its enemies to attack

Puffys: puffer fish like viruses which blow bubbles that bounce, closing in on enemies, and explode on contact with them

ColdBears: polar bear like viruses with blue jackets which shoot blocks of ice at its enemies

* * *

Like the idea of virus logs in this novelization? I thought it would be a neat little thing to throw in at the end of whatever chapter Megaman encounters a new type of virus. I could elaborate more on the viruses, but I prefer them to be brief snippets of information.

Anyway, see you next chapter!

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	10. Chapter 9

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Reply to _Ghost501_'s review of Chapter 8: Looking back at my story as a whole now, I'll admit that I put an emphasis on having helper Navis alongside Megaman. If I feel like writing novelizations of the rest of the Battle Network series, I'll tone it down if people aren't fond of it.

* * *

**-Chapter 9: Friend As Foes-**

Lan and Maysa were devastated at the sight they saw at the Waterworks' pond. They noticed that while there was water, it was not clear and clean, but a putrid purple.

"It looks really nasty..." Maysa frowned, then took a closer look at the gunk. "Are those little chunks of garbage floating about!?"

"Eeeww!" Lan groaned, disgusted at the sight.

A passerby crawled along the ground beside Lan and Maysa. Apparently, he was on the verge of fainting, due to a lack of water. But what would happen to him? Well, he found something to drink, but after he took the liquid to his lips, he could only grunt before finally falling unconscious. To Lan and Maysa's defense, they did warn him that it was bad water, but it was too late.

"You've really done it now," a voice said to the two from behind. They turned around.

"Chaud!"

"Now people will be drinking this 'water', not knowing that it's polluted! The real problem was in the filtering program! This is your fault, Lan!"

"..."

"And you," Chaud continued, now addressing Maysa. "You just had to get involved in this, didn't you? If only you stayed out of it, you wouldn't have been to blame, too! I would stay here, but I have to get back to work. Now, out of my way!" Chaud left the scene.

"Grr... Who do you think you are!?" Lan shouted at him. "Some nerve you have!"

"Lan! Shouting won't fix anything!" Maysa told him. "Try to calm down, will ya?"

"Sigh... You're right."

"Now, let's go and find that filtering program!"

"Right!"

But there was one problem. Where in the Waterworks Network was the filtering program? Sharkman reminded Maysa of that tap without the handle they saw earlier, to Lan and Megaman's shock.

"You saw it, too?" Lan asked him.

"Yeah," Maysa answered. "And I have a hunch that the filtering program is past that! What we need to figure out now is how to get there..."

The two returned to the Waterworks and Maysa showed Lan the basement he was talking about; the entrance was hidden under one of the plants kept in the building. Lan followed Maysa down the steps, to find himself greeted by a dimly lit room. At the far corner, there was a monitor with some jack in ports. Opposite that was a locker. What that was used for was unknown. Lan assumed that it was used to store some sort of equipment. From there, he couldn't help but hear a noise. At first, Maysa couldn't hear it, but his ears picked it up a few seconds later. He recognized that noise.

"But you didn't do anything about it?" Lan sighed.

"I-I thought it was a ghost!" Maysa blurted out.

"You still believe in them, Maysa?"

"I'm telling you, I did see something outside my window that night! I swear on my life!"

"Sigh... Let's just open the locker." Lan was about to reach for the handle, but noticed a padlock around it. "Drat. Now, we need to find a key... Maybe the guy who locked whoever's in there dropped it somewhere."

Lan and Maysa found difficulty in searching for the key. The darkness didn't help much. The only decent source of light was the working monitor. Lan decided to check under it. He heard a jingling sound as his hands felt along the floor. He grabbed whatever the object was and pulled it out. What Lan saw were keys.

"Ah, found it!" Lan grinned.

"Now why would they put the keys in there?" Maysa wondered aloud, questioning the sense of logic the guy had.

Regardless, Lan inserted the key in the padlock and twisted it around. The lock was released and the doors could be open. There was a man inside the locker. He looked like he could have been in his late thirties and wore a blue work attire. From the look on his face, he recognized Lan.

"Oh, you must be Tory's friend! Thank you for saving me!"

"No prob," Lan replied. "You must be Tory's father."

"Ah heh heh... I would have helped ya out there," Maysa laughed sheepishly. "But I thought it was a ghost, so..."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Dr Froid chuckled. "Although I did hear some weird voices from inside."

"Our voices, right?"

"No, they were from before you came to rescue me..."

"See, Lan? It's not just me who believes in them!" Maysa bragged. "Now, pay up!"

"Uh, we never made a bet," Lan said. "And he could have been joking about the ghost thing."

"Dang it!"

"But now's not the time for jokes," Dr Froid stated. "We've got to stop my son from helping World Three!"

"What!?" Lan gasped. "So that's where he was!"

"Here, take this," Dr Froid said, handing over a chip. But it didn't look like a battle chip.

"What is this?"

"You can download a handle for taps in the Waterworks Network. I've heard that World Three broke one off, so this might help."

"Oh, that tap!" Maysa realized. "We'll get right to fixing the filer program now!"

"Iceman might be there," Lan assumed. "We have to stop him! Let's jack Megaman and Sharkman in now!"

"Right!"

"Thanks for helping us out, mister!" Lan said to Dr Froid.

"It was the least I could do," he smiled. "I would stay here, but I have something important I need to do. Could you give a message to my son for me, if you see him?"

"What's the message?"

Dr Froid typed up the message on Lan's PET and saved it, saying to Lan and Maysa, "I'm sorry that I can't do anything more."

"Don't worry about it," Lan smiled. "We'll get Tory back before you know it!"

* * *

**Back In The Waterworks Network...**

Luckily, the jack in ports in the real world took Megaman and Sharkman to the point the Piranhas attacked Megaman, making going to the tap without its handle easier. The two Navis retraced their steps to the tap and arrived there without any problems. There were a wave of viruses or two, but they were taken care of easily.

"Well, Lan. I think it's time to put that handle back," Megaman said.

"I agree. I'll send it to you now."

The chip was slotted into the PET and in Megaman's hands was a tap handle, one which resembled the others. The blue Navi had no problem fitting it in and turning the handle, so the way was cleared easily. Megaman and Sharkman continued along the maze, walking along winding paths and deleting any viruses that came their way. Eventually, they came across an area in the network filled with crossroads, dead ends and paths which would take the two Navis back to the beginning. They tiptoed across the ice, so they wouldn't slip and end up in the wrong places, but the sheer amount of times they had to do so and the amount of time each trek took drained away their patience.

"Uuuurrrrrgh! How long does this thing go on!?" Sharkman groaned.

"Even if it is to protect the filtering program from intruders, isn't this a bit much?" Megaman even groaned also.

"C'mon, now! Remember who you're doing this for!" Maysa reminded them in an attempt to perk up their spirits. It definitely didn't make the two Navis feel that much better, but it got them going nevertheless.

Eventually, after what seemed like forever, Megaman and Sharkman finally caught sight of the filtering program, albeit it was frozen. Suddenly, the sounds of combat shook them awake. A thud was then heard. The two Navis didn't hesitate in rushing forward. They found Iceman down! A blade was pointed to the little Navi. It was Protoman's Cyber Sword!

"It's over," he said to Iceman before catching a glimpse of Megaman. Turning to him, he sighed, "You again?"

"I told you not to interfere!" Chaud growled.

Iceman, still on the cyber ground, saw an opportunity to attack Protoman. Getting up, he shot his trademark Ice Slasher at the red Navi, but the shard of ice was barely dodged.

"So, you still have some fight in you, huh? Well, how about-" Protoman suddenly stopped. He felt something. "Lord Chaud, it seems you have mail from HQ."

"Hm?" Chaud decided to check it out. He let out a growl afterwards. "We've been had, Protoman. You've been fighting a decoy! There's a World Three Navi somewhere in here and they're after the Aqua Program!"

"The Aqua Program?" Lan repeated. From the sound of his voice, it was clear that he had heard of it before.

"We need to find this Navi and stop him!" Chaud told Protoman.

"Yes, sir!" With that, Protoman's Cyber Sword turned back into his arm. Carrying out his orders, he left the battlefield.

"Iceman! Why are you doing this!?" Megaman demanded to know after he was gone.

"I'm sorry, Megaman..." the little Navi responded sadly.

"What are you talking about?" Sharkman asked.

"World Three has my father..." the sound of Tory's voice answered. "If I'm going to get them back, I have to do as they say."

"Tory! You have to listen to me!" Lan shouted.

"I'm afraid I can't," Tory responded. "I have to protect my father!"

"But Tory!"

"Lan, he's not gonna listen anytime soon," Maysa told Lan. "We'll have to fight your friend to get him back!"

"But-"

"Sharkman! Get him!"

The shark Navi immediately lunged for his opponent, despite Megaman's protests, and slammed his shoulder at him, following up with a Fin Cutter. After taking the hit, Iceman somersaulted and landed on his two feet, shooting Ice Slashers at his enemy, but the ice shards were dodged.

"Hah! Is that all you got!?" Sharkman taunted him, firing another Fin Cutter. To counter, Iceman shot another Ice Slasher. The two projectiles exploded on collision.

Even midst the cyber smoke, the fighters still fired volleys of Fin Cutters and Ice Slashers, which all collided and broke apart. When the smoke cleared away, Sharkman and Iceman rushed at each other and traded blows in rapid speed. Meanwhile, Megaman, standing by the sidelines, only watched in horror. Ice Punch chips were given to the fighting Navis by their NetOps and the large fists collided with each other. The force from the Ice Punches pushed the Navis away from each other. It seemed like an even match, but Iceman saw an opening and gained the upper hand by shooting an Ice Slasher right at Sharkman's stomach. Sharkman was knocked back and took the combined force of several more Ice Slashers. It was then that Sharkman began to struggle and not be able to keep up with the speed of Iceman's attacks. Megaman couldn't watch anymore. He lunged ahead and tackled Iceman down to the cyber ground.

"Well, well. Look who finally decided to make a move," Sharkman smirked.

"I don't want to do this to you, Iceman," Megaman told Iceman, ignoring Sharkman's comment. "But you just won't listen to me!"

Iceman remained silent. He remained silent as he leaped away from Megaman and fired another Ice Slasher at him. He then tackled the blue Navi in the stomach, then beat him down with a flurry of punches.

"It shouldn't have come to this," Megaman said after recovering. "But it has. Sharkman! You ready?"

"You bet!" Sharkman grinned.

"Now we're talking!" Maysa grinned also. "Aqua Tower! Battle chip in! Download!"

"Electro Sword! Battle chip in! Download!" Lan shouted.

While Megaman's right hand turned into a sword with sparks surrounding it, Sharkman slammed his fin like hands down, summoning a pillar of water rushing at Iceman.

"That won't work!" Tory said. "Ice Tower! Battle chip in! Download!"

Iceman slammed his right hand down to summon a towering icicle to rush at Sharkman. The two attacks crashed into each other and a mist burst out, covering everything around it. As soon as it disappeared, a huge icicle towered over the Navis around it. Megaman then rushed in with his Electro Sword and slashed it away. Afterwards, he lunged for Iceman and swung his blade at him, only to have the attack dodged in a backflip. After landing in his feet, Iceman placed a cupped hand to his mouth and breathed his Cyber Blizzard. Megaman leaped upwards, avoiding being frozen by it, raised his Electro Sword high and swung it downwards at his opponent, who screamed in pain after taking the slash. Iceman keeled over his right hand supporting him from falling down. Sharkman got ready to rush at him to finish the job, but Megaman stopped him.

"You alright, Iceman?" he asked.

"Megaman..."

"Here, read this," Megaman said, a slip of paper appearing in his hand. Iceman took the slip of paper to find a message written from Dr Froid.

"This... This is from my father..." Tory realized.

"Do you get it now, Tory? Your father's safe," Lan assured him.

"Man... After all I've done..." Everything he did do came crashing down on his mind. He put everyone's lives at risk for his father, when Dr Froid was just fine! Tory couldn't believe what he put everyone through. For nothing! All he could do, however, was set things straight. "Iceman, unfreeze the filtering program."

"On it."

Iceman stepped towards the frozen program. After exhaling once more, he took a deep breath in, chipping away the ice covering the structure. Bit by bit, the ice chipped away, until there was none left.

"Iceman, jack out," Tory said, after having nothing to say for what felt like a minute.

"ICEMAN, LOGGING OUT," a computerized voice declared, as the winter Navi disappeared from the area in a blue light.

Suddenly, an alarm blared! Megaman and Sharkman frantically turned around for the source of it. After heading back the way they came, they found Protoman confronting another new Navi. This one was resembled a clown, but he bounced on a ball that took the place of where legs would be. For his structure, this multicolored Navi had tall and skinny arms.

"Put down the Aqua Program, or else," Protoman threatened him.

"Now, now. We don't have time to play with you right now," he responded in his wacky clown like voice, juggling the blue orb that was the Aqua Program. "But you will face me soon! Time for me to jack out, Maddy! Ho ho ho ho ho!"

"COLORMAN, LOGGING OUT."

Protoman, noticing Megaman again, turned to him and groaned, "You again..."

"Why were they the Aqua Program, Chaud?" Lan asked.

"Why would I waste time talking to you?" Chaud snarled. "We're out of here, Protoman. Jack out."

"Roger."

"PROTOMAN, LOGGING OUT."

"I wonder why World Three wanted the Aqua Program," Megaman said.

"I'm not sure," Sharkman grunted, taking a step away. "I'll see you again soon."

"SHARKMAN, LOGGING OUT."

"Megaman, let's go see Tory," Lan said to him.

"Yeah."

* * *

**Later, At A Faraway Mountainside...**

Somewhere unknown to ordinary citizens was a base. In that base was a checkered room with a board at the front. To its left were four platforms, which were green, red, yellow and blue. Directly in front of the board was a table, where an elderly man with an optic stood. His right hand man, Yahoot, stood by and there were three other people that had gathered round: Mr Match, Maddy and an electricity lover called Count Zap.

"All our plans in DenTech City have failed recently!" the elderly man growled. "This will slow down the entire plan to control the Net! What is the problem!?"

"Our apologies, Lord Wily!" Mr Match spoke up. "It's just..."

"What? Speak up!" Lord Wily commanded him. Maddy and Count Zap turned to Match.

"There's... There's this one Navi-Operator team who-"

"Hmph! An Official Net Battler, I assume?"

"N-No! It's just a boy! By the name of Lan, and he has this powerful Navi called Megaman! We can't do anything with him around!"

"World Three's Navis can handle anything!" Wily shouted. "No excuses!"

"But-"

"Silence! Silence!" Wily roared, repeatedly slamming the table down. "No more failures! Delete everything in your way!"

"Heh. Leave it to me, sir," Maddy grinned, bowing to her leader. "I have a plan."

"Then what are you waiting for? Get to it!" With that, Lord Wily took off, along with Yahoot, who remained silent throughout the conversation.

"Must we get every Super Program by ourselves?" Maddy sighed behind their backs.

"It's for that thing," Count Zap told her. "That thing we're not even supposed to know the name of. It's too much of a shocking secret, after all!"

"I know, I know," Maddy groaned. "But it would be nice if those two actually did something, instead of lounging around all day. Oh well, back to work."

* * *

The date I am uploading this chapter is December 29th. Since we are nearing the end of the year, I would like to wish all of my readers a happy late Christmas (or whatever you celebrate, if anything) and best wishes for the new year!

I have no plans for to update this fic just before the turn over the new leaf, so I'll be returning next week, on January 5th, to continue. Unfortunately, the next chapter will be relatively short. However, I'm sure that the next few afterwards will make up for it.

Regardless, until we meet again, stay safe!

* * *

**-Have a great New Year and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	11. Chapter 10

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Reply to _Ghost501_'s review of Chapter 10: Ah, I completely forgot about 'Load Chaud'! Battle Network 4 may be infamous for its horrid misspellings, but that doesn't mean that the other games are perfect in that regard!

On another note, Megaman X6 was also messed up, in terms of grammar. Both X6 and BN1 were released in 2001. Perhaps that was the year of bad grammar in Megaman games?

* * *

**-Chapter 10: Nothing To Worry About-**

**Two Days After The Waterworks Incident...**

It was just another school day and this time, Tory was present, but something was off about him. He often kept his eyes down at his desk in class and kept telling everyone that he was fine, even though he wasn't. During recess, he stood at the shaded corner of the playground alone, but no one knew why. What no one knew was that Tory was buried deep in his thoughts.

_Why am I here, even after all I've done? It's all my fault... What if someone finds out it was me? What if someone finds out I was the one who stopped the water from running? Everyone will hate me!_

Tory wasn't normally this down in the dumps, but neither was he an energetic boy. He kept a constant calm nature. But what he did brought even himself down. The worst thing was that someone would eventually rat out on him. You could say that the stress of it all was what was actually bringing him down. Lan and the others tried taking with him, but he ignored every comment. In the lunch hall at lunchtime, again, he ignored every remark. During classes, he wouldn't participate, still keeping his eyes down at his desk. He did his work when he was asked to, but that was all. His friends, especially Lan, were getting worried. Apart from Lan, they all wondered what happened to him? Was it linked to his absence yesterday. After school, they all decided to ask him again what was wrong, but Lan had other ideas.

"Um, guys. I think it would be better if I talked with him alone," he said to everyone, ignoring everyone else's questioning as he left. Lan was meant to see Tory two days ago right after the filtering program was unfrozen, but he wasn't anywhere to be found. A day after, he checked Tory's house to see, but his mother said he didn't want to see anyone.

Meanwhile, Tory, staying away from his friends, decided to head on home. Originally, he was planning to help his father, but by this point, even the mentioning of the company's name made him shudder. He just couldn't get over what he did. He decided to sit around at the park for a while before heading home. As he was about to take a seat on the bench...

"Hey, Tory!"

It was Lan who called him. Apparently, he was following him the whole time. He took a seat next to him on the bench.

"You okay?" Lan asked him. "You've been awfully quiet today. Not that you're not a quiet person, but this time, you didn't say a word!"

"I'm... sorry about that," Tory replied quietly. "Just thinking things over."

"What things?"

Tory only sighed as a response. Then, he turned around to make sure no one else was listening. After a long pause, answered the question with, "Back then..."

"What?"

"Don't you remember? I froze the Waterworks programs and stopped the water from running. And it was all to help World Three."

"Oh. But you did it to save your dad, didn't you?" Lan reminded his friend. "World Three had your dad captive, didn't they?"

"Yeah, it was for father, but I put everyone else in danger because of it! I didn't think of anyone else's need for water, Lan!"

"And what were you gonna do with your father, then? Leave him with World Three!?"

"..."

"Tory, my father's always told me that if it's not the right thing to do, you wouldn't have done it. Maybe people would get mad if they found you stopped the water, yes, but you did it to save your father."

"... About what happens when people find out... Will they... Lan, will they really get mad at me? Will they... hate me?"

"Mad? Maybe. But hate you? No way! Anyone else wuld have done the same thing, had they been in your position. " Tory looked down on the grass for a moment, taking in what Lan had said, hearing his friend also say to him, "So don't worry about it."

"..."

"..."

"Thanks." Tory, for the first time that day, had a smile on his face. "Thanks, Lan."

"That's what friends are for, right?" Lan grinned back, placing his hand on Tory's shoulder

"I guess. Hey, would you mind... not telling anyone about this?

"I won't tell a soul, Tory."

"Thanks. Hey, I better get going. See ya, Lan!"

"See ya, Tory!"

Tory was headed for the Metroline to return to the Waterworks, as originally planned, while Lan decided to head back to his place.

"That was really sweet of you, Lan," Megaman said to him.

Lan took out his PET and responded, "Well, what were you expecting? Me just leaving him there?"

"I guess that wouldn't have been right. I would have done the same thing. Anyway, better get home quick. Remember those chores you promised mom you'd do?"

"Aw, man!"

* * *

**Afterwards, On The Internet...**

"That didn't take too long, did it, Lan?" Megaman said to his NetOp.

"I guess not," Lan replied. "But chores are chores and I'm not too big on them!"

"Didn't think so!" Megaman chuckled as he left the homepage and headed for the Internet.

The ACDC Area looked quite packed with children's Navis. Apparently, no homework was set, so it gave kids a chance to spend the rest of the day on the Net. Right now, though, it didn't look like there was anything to do for Megaman.

"Uh, Lan. What did you jack me in for?" he asked.

"Hmm... I didn't really think of that," Lan laughed sheepishly. "I guess you're just here for the sake of being here."

"What? But viruses could attack at any minute!"

"They're weak. And you're awesome at deleting them, so what threat could they be to you?"

"Well, you got me there. I suppose I'll just take a walk around while you do whatever."

There was nothing to do. Gutsman was probably busy training, Glyde was off to who knows where and Iceman was in his PET. This only left Roll, but where was she? After a minute or two, she did pass her Security Gate, but from the way she was turning left and right every now and then, she was clearly looking for someone. She was looking for Megaman and she saw him looking around, too. She had something to give to him, so she went up to him.

"Hmm? Oh, hey, Roll!" he greeted her.

"Hiya, Mega!" she chirped happily. A smile pulled along Megaman's face at this, for Roll's cheery nature was one thing he liked about her. The nickname that was given to him was rather adorable, he felt. "I have something for you."

"Oh? What is it?" Megaman asked, before noticing a slip of paper appear in his friend's hand.

"It's a message from Maylu to Lan," Roll said. "I'd really love to stay and hang out with you, Mega, but there seems to be a problem with Maylu's Mr Progs outside her Security Gate and I have to sort it out. I guess I'll see you there when Lan answers!"

"Okay, see you there!" Megaman said, seeing Roll head back. Addressing Lan, he asked, "Well, shall I read it out?"

"Sure," Lan answered.

"Okay. It says 'Hey, Yai's birthday is coming soon! Wanna come with me to buy a present for her this Saturday? Write me back!' Well, Lan, are you busy this weekend?"

"Hmm... I have nothing planned," Lan said. "A little shopping won't hurt!" He typed up his response and gave it to Megaman. "Give this to Roll, okay?"

"Already on it," the blue Navi smiled, heading off to Roll's Security Gate to give the message to his friend.

* * *

Happy New Year, everyone! To kick things off, the MMBN novelization will continue!

Even though this is now my only ongoing novelization, I'll still be uploading just once a week. I need time to plan out novelizations of games I've considered (a list of which can be found on my profile). Not to mention, I have a feeling that schoolwork and homework will be kicked into high gear in these coming months. It's always the middle of the school year that I dread...

Anyway, folks, keep doing what you do and I'll see you all next week.

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	12. Chapter 11

**I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.**

* * *

Reply to _Ghost501_'s review of Chapter 10: At the time I wrote this, I drastically changed what the Traffic Light Network would be like. I'm not sure if you, or anyone else, will appreciate the change, but the explanation's in the chapter.

* * *

**-Chapter 11: Trouble In Town-**

**The Following Saturday...**

"Man, where's Maylu?" Lan sighed, pacing back and forth between the Metroline under the mid morning sky.

"Well, I'm surprised," Megaman commented. "It's usually you who's late. I wonder what's keeping Maylu up."

"Hm... Now that you mention it, Megaman, you're right! For once, she's the late one!" Lan grinned suddenly. "Now I can't wait to see the look on her face! Only problem is that she isn't here yet. Darn."

After a few more minutes of pacing, Lan finally caught sight of his magenta haired friend, who panted as she rushed to him.

"Hah! Who's late now?" Lan smirked.

"Sorry, sorry!" Maylu apologized in between breaths. "I had something to bring over to my grandma's..."

"Hmph. You could have told me."

"I promise I'll make it up to you! Now, let's go."

After school on Friday, Lan and Maylu agreed to meet up at the Metroline and head for DenTech Town, the central area of DenTech City, home to the Internet Area 'Central DenTech Area'. And so, this was where they were headed today. While train rides from ACDC Town to Marine Harbor took twenty minutes, train rides from ACDC Town to DenTech Town took a chunky thirty five minutes. This, however, gave the two friends plenty of time to talk about loads of different stuff, including...

"Lan, do you... like anyone?"

"What do you mean?" Lan asked, clearly confused at Maylu's question.

"Well, what I mean is..." She lowered her head in slight embarrassment. "You know what, never mind..."

"Huh..."

"Don't you get it, Lan?" Megaman spoke up.

"Don't get what, Megaman?" the boy responded.

"The way Maylu asked you that question, the question itself," the blue Navi reminded his NetOp, his voice lowered to a hushed tone. "Do you seriously not get it?"

"No...? Am I supposed to?"

"Sigh... Sometimes, you can be so dense, Lan..."

"But it's not my fault I don't get it!"

Whatever Maylu meant, Lan wouldn't ever understand (or, so he thought). In their own heads, the two vowed to forget about it, especially Maylu. Well, at least until she could muster up enough courage to talk about the subject properly... In any case, they arrived at DenTech Town.

DenTech Town, dubbed to the entire city's citizens as 'The Town', was normally very busy and this day was no exception. While the town was massive, the many commuters and civilians took up the huge space. The town itself was separated into five sections, each signified by the houses' roofs: North (with red roofs), East (with yellowy orange roofs), South (with lime green roofs), West (with navy roofs) and Center (with white roofs). The Metroline was located in the town's Center, which was where Lan and Maylu were greeted with tree trunk brown sidewalks and plenty of buildings, housing and facilities.

"So, what are we gonna get Yai?" Lan asked.

"Well, I heard that she's been collecting antiques recently," Maylu answered. "So why don't we get some for her?"

"Good idea. But where are we gonna find a place to buy antiques?"

"Don't worry, Lan," Maylu smiled. "I've been here before with my mom. The antique shop is over at the town's East."

"East?" Lan repeated, before Maylu explained everything about the town's structure. Lan understood some of it, but he received the info too quickly (according to him, anyway). The two traveled through the northern area to get the the east, for there was a lot for Lan to see, but they couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. They took a glance around and noticed something odd about the traffic lights.

"Hey, Maylu. Are traffic lights supposed to be green both ways?" Using the latest technology, the red lights emitted strips of energy, which prevented people from driving past. Walkers and drivers heading vertically were allowed through when those heading horizontally were stopped, and vice versa (for the sake of convenience, entrances to tunnels which led to the other side of the street were built). In this instance, the green lights were on for vertical and horizontal drivers at the same time!

"Oh no! Watch out!" Maylu shouted to the driving citizens, but it was too late. Two drivers, one driving eastward and another heading south, attempted to pull the brakes, but the heads of their cars collided in a booming explosion, striking fear on all the other town goers and Lan and Maylu.

In the midst of all that, Lan and Maylu suddenly received mail. But why now, at a time like this!? They began to take a look. It was from World Three! It contained this message:

'Greetings, citizens of DenTech Town! Is your autodrive system malfunctioning? Well, don't fear! We at World Three have created a program guaranteed to solve the problem! Just install it into your car and it will run like new! On sale at DenTech Town's Center while supplies last! It's a little pricey, but it's all worth it!'

After scrolling down through it all, the price of the 'program' appeared in bulging text, to which Lan and Maylu yelped in shock and exited the message.

"Those World Three jerks!" Lan growled. "Kicking people when they're down!"

"It must be World Three viruses bugging the traffic lights!" a voice shouted to Lan from across the street. Lan and Maylu turned to the direction they heard the voice from and noticed Sal, with her was a close friend of hers, Miyu, who was the owner of the antique shop Maylu was talking about. Said shop was where Sal and Miyu were headed.

"We must stop them before the situation gets worse," Miyu stated calmly after the introductions were gotten out of the way. "I sense impending danger as we speak."

"Then we better get moving!" Maylu responded. "Let's jack in from where we are and our Navis will meet up and take care of everything! Ready, Lan?"

"Who do you think I am?" he smirked. "Let's do this! Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"

"Jack in, Roll! Execute!"

* * *

**In The Traffic Light Network...**

Each part of the real world's town housed their own area of the Traffic Light Network, which could be accessed by jacking into the respective traffic lights themselves. Since Lan, Maylu, Sal and Miyu all jacked in from the North, their Navis arrived at the Northern Traffic Light Network.

Megaman and Roll were on one side of the network, but on the other side were two other Navis, Woodman, a hefty, tree based Navi, and Skullman, a skeletal Navi. The cyber sky was black and lined with road like patterns, which came in shades of red, blue and yellow. The cyber ground was red on the side Woodman and Skullman were on, but it was blue on the other side, the side with Megaman and Roll. In the center was a bright main platform, one with two Mr Progs. They controlled the actual lights from the traffic lights. However, the four Navis couldn't reach them yet, for lines of viruses, all with World Three's data signatures, made their way to them in an attempt to delete them all. They were tougher than regular viruses, but they were still no match for the Navis.

Paths may have branched off every now and then, but it was actually very simple to get around. That was because maintenance was extremely important for travel systems, so repairmen's Navis shouldn't have had to struggle getting to where they needed to do their job. To make up for it, security Navis had to be dotted across the Traffic Light Network. However, neither Megaman, Roll, Woodman nor Skullman saw any sign of them and they wouldn't dare to talk about why...

As the four Navis made it there, they saw groups of viruses, made up of Puffers, VolGears and Mettool2s, surrounding the two Mr Progs.

"Stop, evil doers, and release them!" Woodman commanded them, only to have them turning to him and displaying angry looks on their faces.

"Hmph. Won't do it, eh?" Skullman smirked. "Then get ready to be deleted! Ready, Woodman?"

"As always, friend!"

"Roll and I will help you guys out, too!" Megaman said to Skullman.

"Ah! Good to see you two again!" Woodman remarked. There was an incident back with ACDC's squirrel statue where the three had met. Megaman and Roll were new faces to Skullman, though.

"So, you're Megaman and Roll," he mused.

"Yep. That's us!" Roll responded cheerfully. "And you must be Skullman, right?" Woodman briefly mentioned Skullman to Megaman and Roll once.

"Got that right," said skeletal Navi responded. "But enough of the greetings. We need to show these viruses their place!"

"Right behind you!" Megaman affirmed, as the four of them prepared to strike.

Roll jumped backwards and turned her right arm into a pink bow. From this, she shot her 'Roll Arrows', which seemed to do minimal damage to the viruses, but before they could laugh tauntingly, they found themselves severely stunned. Taking the chance, Skullman leaped upwards and breathed balls of 'Ghost Fire', which rained down on the virus hordes, while Megaman fired his Mega Buster at them. Meanwhile, Woodman used his 'Green Wood' attack by slamming his fist down and summoning sharp wood spikes to trap and impale viruses. Only a few of the pests survived this combined attack. A couple of VolGears began to use their Tower attacks, but they were interrupted and stunned by Roll Arrows and finally deleted by Mega Buster shots. The Mr Progs, who witnessed the beat down the viruses deserved and got, cheered together.

"Now that we're free, we can do our jobs again!" one of them sighed in relief.

"Well, make it quick!" Skullman told them. "Change the lights red before another pair of real world cars bite the dust!"

"Will do!" With that affirmation, the Mr Progs flipped their switches, the signals on top of them turning from green to red.

"You know, you two are pretty strong," Skullman said to Megaman and Roll. "Maybe as good as me or Woodman!"

"Ha ha. You're pretty strong yourself," Megaman admitted. "What do you think, Roll?"

"I'm with you, Mega," Roll smiled.

"C'mon, Roll. Now that the traffic's back, we better warn everyone not to buy that so called program!" Maylu said.

"Of course." Before everyone agreed to jack out, Roll waved to Skullman and Woodman and said to them, "I'll see you guys soon!"

* * *

**Back In DenTech Town...**

"That time may come very early," Miyu responded to Roll's words.

"Hm? What are you talking about?" Sal asked her.

"I just have a feeling," Miyu replied stoically as the two followed Lan and Maylu's lead to DenTech Town's Center. There, they saw the woman Lan saw last week. With the amount of people around her willing to 'buy' the 'program' for their cars, she was pleased to see that everything was going according to her plan. However, as soon as she saw Lan, her grin pulled down to a frown.

"You again..." she growled.

"You were from the Waterworks, weren't you? And you were a World Three operator the entire time!?"

"That's right, you meddling kid!"

"You're the one meddling!" Lan retorted.

Meanwhile, Maylu, Sal and Miyu convinced the people of the crowd that this was all a World Three scam. They, too, knew of the trouble World Three caused and didn't want anything from a 'company' such as them. One by one, the people of the crowd left.

"Aaaaahhh! My customers!"

"Your so called 'customers' now know why you're running this 'business'!" Maylu smirked.

"Grrrr! You don't know how much... Aaaarrrgh! This time, I'll break all the traffic signs for good! And I'll get you good, kid!" She addressed Lan as she said her last sentence.

"Lan?"

"What are you talking about!?" Lan growled.

"I've been reading your personal files," the woman began. "And I know that you hate nothing more than losing your loved ones! You're gonna be real depressed when I'm done with you! Then, you'll remember to never mess with Maddy!" Cackling, she took off.

"No!" Sal spoke up. "We can't let her get away with this!"

"..." Miyu said nothing. Instead, she breathed more heavily.

"Hm? What's up, Miyu?" Sal asked her.

"Lan, Maylu, the woman that just took off may have foreshadowed a terrible event!" Miyu warned the two.

"What!?"

Suddenly, their PETs began to ring. They took them out to see that they had calls, calls from Dex and Tory! They needed help because they were stuck in a bus that was being controlled past green lights! They panicked, but they were told to calm down and say where they were.

"Um, it looks like we're headed for the Western Area," Tory said to Lan, noticing the dark blue roofs on the houses.

"Alright! Just hang on! We'll do something to stop the bus!" Lan told him.

"Hang on!? You need to get us out of here fast!" Dex's shout rang through Maylu's PET.

"You heard Lan! We'll be right there!" Maylu assured him.

As fast as they could, Lan, Maylu, Sal and Miyu dashed for the area Tory mentioned, the west of DenTech Town. After finding a traffic light to jack into, they immediately jacked their Navis into the Western Traffic Light Network.

It was the same routine as last time: find the main platform with the Mr Progs and delete the viruses holding them.

* * *

**Virus Log-**

Mettool2s: faster and stronger Mettools with magenta bodies and blue crosses on their helmets

* * *

I wasn't sure how to write out the disappearing and reappearing of platforms as someone steps over something. However, in the next network, I was able to write out its gimmick perfectly fine! For the life of me, I don't know why, so I sincerely apologize.

But enough guilty talk. I'll see you guys next time!

* * *

-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-


End file.
